The Pecan Street Project gets a website to start sharing with the world, after working quietly for six months. 12 teams and 150 professionals are defining what Smart Grid 2.0 is all about in Austin, TX. For Austin Energy, it is a great opportunity to take its success in deploying its Smart Grid 1.0 (first in the US) and work with world class organizations to build on it the next evolutionary step.
The Pecan Street Project was founded by Austin Energy, the City of Austin, The University of Texas, and The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and it became a partnership with The Environmental Defense Fund, Applied Materials, Dell, GE, IBM, Intel, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Freescale Semiconductor, Sematech, GridPoint, and several others.
The Pecan Street Project will comprise three phases with several parallel efforts. The first phase will be complete by the end of August 2009, and will focus on developing an action plan for Austin Energy and identifying key barriers that must be overcome for success. These barriers will be organized into the following categories: technologies, workforce, markets and business models and policies. The technology section will be further organized into those that 1) are ready for implementation (for example motion sensors for hallway lights), 2) need to be tested and verified when integrated into the grid, and 3) need to be developed, as well as by generation, storage, efficiency, and low-tech options. The second phase will be the execution of the recommendations and pilots approved by the Austin Energy board of directors. And the third phase is a potential new research consortium.
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