Advanced Clean
Communities Collaborative (AC3)
Efficient, connected, smart and flexible buildings are key to modernizing U.S. infrastructure,
lowering energy use and improving the nation’s electricity grid. The Advanced Clean Communities Collaborative (AC3) is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and is part of Connected Communities – a series of projects that work to demonstrate how groups of buildings can reliably
and cost-effectively serve as assets to the grid.
Led by IBACOS, the AC3 project involves collaboration from several partners including Duke Energy, Meritage Homes, Elevation, EnergyHub, Tierra Resource Consultants, Energy & Environmental Economics (E3), and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Over the course of the 4-year project, up to 1,000 new and existing single-family and multi-family homes in Duke Energy’s North Carolina service territory will be connected to serve utility peak capacity and resource adequacy needs at the bulk system and local transmission and distribution level.
Data on aggregated grid impacts and value across
a range of homes, end uses, and technologies will
be collected to help identify best approaches to delivering flexible distributed capacity at scale.
New business models between utilities,
homebuilders, existing home providers, and
customers will be essential to the success of these programs and will provide new value streams
to each of these stakeholders.