IAB News Round-Up, Spring 2023

• Rheem® Family of Brands Win Silver and Bronze at the 2023 Edison Awards

“The Rheem Renaissance™ 15-25 ton Commercial HVAC line earned silver in the Engineering & Robotics, Commercial Technology category and the Rheem ProTerra® Plug-in Heat Pump Water Heater earned bronze in the Consumer Solutions, Sustainable Design category.”

• Eight ConEdison Employees Win Awards for Research Findings

“Eight Con Edison employees have won coveted industry awards for research findings that can guide energy companies across the country as they seek to better serve their customers and control costs. The Con Edison researchers earned Technology Transfer Awards bestowed by the Electric Power Research Institute, or EPRI, which helps energy companies improve their service by working together on research and development.”

• Xcel Energy drives forward State’s electric vehicle goals with programs in Colorado

“Xcel Energy is taking the next step in helping more customers and communities adopt electric vehicles as it furthers Colorado’s 2030 EV goal by proposing its next three-year Transportation Electric Plan (TEP) to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. The plan builds on the company’s first TEP, approved in 2021, with new and enhanced electric vehicle charging programs, public charging options and rebates, and incentives to make charging easy, fast and more affordable for all customers while also supporting new innovation.”

• U.S. Department of Energy and Xcel Energy announce new effort to power Colorado’s federal facilities with 100% clean energy by 2030

“The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Xcel Energy announced today they signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to provide Federal facilities in Colorado with 100% carbon pollution-free electricity (CFE) by 2030. This marks the second such partnership announced by the Biden-Harris Administration as the Government works with the private sector across the country to lead the way on sustainability. The announcement is part of President Biden’s commitment to catalyze clean-energy industries and create jobs through initiatives to achieve net-zero.”

• Alpen High Performance Products’ Rapidly Growing, Energy-Saving WinSert Now Spearheaded by Driver of Commercial LED Technology Adoption

“WinSert, patented by Alpen, is a revolutionary lightweight window retrofit solution designed for commercial buildings that radically differs from conventional storm windows or traditional inserts. WinSert’s two-minute installation can cost 1/10th of traditional window replacement and provide a 97% air leakage reduction, delivering superior energy savings.”

• PassiveLogic Autonomous Buildings Vision Showcased at AHR 2023

“PassiveLogic is an early-stage technology company with a vision to achieve commercial building environmental and energy efficiency targets more effectively. This is to be accomplished by creating a physics-based ontology for next-generation control and AI (Artificial Intelligence) that is the basis for the design process through active building control and automation. Discussing HVAC control, PassiveLogic claims the new approach eliminates a range of today’s control inefficiencies citing PID overshoot/undershoot as a prime example. The PassiveLogic system design is reliant on the development of the Quantum Alliance Digital Twin Standard described further in this article. PassiveLogic believes there is no standard in the world to define autonomous systems for buildings today.”

• Managing Building Efficiency in the City That Next Sleeps

“Data exchange and support software developed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is helping community building owners—including those in New York City—meet the national drive toward decarbonization. Lauren Adams, data science researcher in NREL’s Building Technologies and Science Center, said it will take teamwork to implement climate-action regulations nationwide. She leads BuildingSync®, a data collection and management tool created in the Commercial Buildings Research Group.”