OptiMiser, LLC has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Award by the US Department of Energy (DOE) for 2021.
The project titled, "New Methods for Analyzing Load-Shifting Measures for the Existing Housing Stock," will focus on providing field technicians with tools that enable them to design effective, site-specific packages of Grid-Interactive Efficient Building (GEB) measures that take advantage of Time-Of-Use (TOU)/demand rates while maintaining comfort. It will also result in helping homeowners understand new rate structures and the advantages of proposed solutions.
To maximize the benefits of clean energy sources like solar, utilities need to be able to shift load into the peak generation hours. TOU rates and demand charges that incentivize load shifting and GEB measures that achieve those shifts in residential buildings are becoming more broadly available. To meet the evolving needs of efficiency programs and technicians in this new landscape, OptiMiser, LLC will augment its existing residential energy analysis platform to transform it into a complete solution for rate analysis, load shifting measure design, and homeowner communication. OptiMiser will use the HPXML auditing schema to connect to DOE’s EnergyPlus engine, which can accurately model both energy-efficiency measures and load shifting. This additional will let OptiMiser more effectively identify residences that will benefit from load-shifting utility programs.
OptiMiser has identified 1.4 million residential customers who are candidates for load shifting programs and energy efficiency upgrades. By improving their auditing tool, they can help a larger number of residential customers save energy while helping utilities maximize the use of renewable generation.
