States, cities, and utilities across the region have made aggressive commitments to deep carbon reductions. In our 2018 Strategic Electrification Action Plan, NEEP found that significantly decarbonizing buildings to the necessary levels will require energy efficiency, a number of distributed energy resources including distributed generation and energy storage, and a less-recognized pathway known as strategic electrification. This combination also calls for new smart technologies to control and manage the interplay between these new building-based solutions and the electric grid.
Stakeholders throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic must start now to transition towards smart energy homes of the future. Smart technologies can and must be more than just fun gadgets. In the residential sector, smart energy homes have the opportunity to drive the region towards building decarbonization by:
- Building the connection between the home’s loads and the grid;
- Decreasing total residential energy use; and
- Enabling load shifting across as many end uses as possible.
Smart home technologies and home energy management systems (HEMS) can integrate decarbonized distributed energy resources (DERs) and strategically-electrified technologies, such as air-source heat pumps (ASHPs) and heat pump water heaters (HPWHs). This report explores the why, how, and where of smart energy homes to build towards residential decarbonization and prepare the region for the low-carbon, electrified homes of the future.
NEEP held a public webinar on March 20 providing an overview of the report. More information, slides, and recording here.