Load Management Dialogue

Resource Materials For:

US Department of Energy’s Future Connected Communities:
Validating Buildings as a Grid Resource

with David Nemtzow, DOE; Mary Ann Piette, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Teja Kuruganti, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and Allison Hamilton, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association

Thursday, April 2, 2020; 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. Eastern

Thank you for your interest in this PLMA Demand Response Dialogue. This will be a 30-minute conversation with PowerPoint slides.

You have access to review the recording on this page.

You can download the slides here.

Contact info:

• David Nemtzow, DOE; [email protected]
• Mary Ann Piette, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; [email protected]
• Teja Kuruganti, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; [email protected]
• Allison Hamilton, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association; [email protected]

Discover how the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Building Technologies Office is expanding its research to validate grid-interactive efficient buildings as a grid resource. Gain insights regarding key findings on grid-interactive efficient buildings research and future opportunities.

The dialogue will focus on a significant investment planned by DOE in Connected Communities. As used here, the term Connected Community is a group of grid-interactive efficient buildings with diverse, flexible end use equipment that collectively work to maximize building and grid efficiency without compromising occupant needs and comfort. The goal of a proposed Funding Opportunity Announcement is to demonstrate the ability of groups of efficient buildings to provide additive benefits to the electricity system and building owners including energy savings, peak demand reduction, reduced capacity needs, and cost savings. DOE intends to expand its initial set of smart community testbeds into a larger cohort of regional pilot projects to study a variety of building types, technologies, and business models in varied utility regulatory environments, climates, and locations.

Read the DOE Funding Opportunity Announcement at click here and plan to join PLMA for a dialogue with these industry thought leaders.

David Nemtzow U.S. Department of Energy David Nemtzow is the Building Technologies Office Director of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). He previously served as the team's senior strategist. Before serving in his current role, he was director-general (CEO) of the Department of Energy, Utilities, and Sustainability for New South Wales―Australia's most populous state―where he played a central role in the state's electricity, greenhouse, energy, and water strategies and policies. He also served as president of the Alliance to Save Energy, and has been a member of the executive committee of a distributed energy storage startup company, an independent energy consultant, and a senior congressional energy staff member.

Mary Ann Piette Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Mary Ann Piette is a Senior Scientist, Director of the Building Technology and Urban Systems Division and Senior Science Advisor to the Associate Lab Director of Energy Technologies Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She oversees LBNL's building energy research activities with the US Department of Energy and over 25 other R&D sponsors. She is also the Director of the Demand Response Research Center. Mary Ann's work involves developing and evaluating new technology and building components, controls, operations, simulation, whole building and electric load shape analysis and behavior. She is also lead researcher at LBNL on the automated demand response technology. Mary Ann has authored over 90 peer reviewed publications related to energy efficiency and demand response and has worked at LBNL since 1983. She has a MS in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley and a Licentiate in Building Services Engineering from the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.

Teja Kuruganti Oak Ridge National Laboratory Dr. Teja Kuruganti is the Group Leader for Computational Systems Modeling Group in Computational Sciences and Engineering Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), where he has worked since 2003. He currently leads ORNL activities in developing novel sensors and controls for improving energy efficiency of buildings and novel techniques for enabling grid-integration and responsive building loads. Dr. Kuruganti is also a Joint Faculty Associate Professor in Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Allison Hamilton National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Allison Hamilton is the Senior Principal, for Markets and Rates in the Business and Technology Strategies group at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA). She serves as the technical expert for NRECA staff and membership with respect to retail and wholesale rate structures and evolving energy services business models. Prior to her position at NRECA, she worked for Pepco Holdings based in Washington D.C. for more than 13 years in various capacities. Before crossing over into the energy industry she spent several years as an equity analyst for a boutique investment bank in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a liberal arts degree from Valparaiso University and an M.B.A. from Johns Hopkins University.