The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is partnering with Panasonic Corporation and Xcel Energy to simulate and optimize the energy load profile of Peña Station NEXT, a planned 382-acre mixed-use development in Denver, Colo.
 
The project will employ the grid modeling capabilities of NREL’s Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) while demonstrating URBANopt software, a buildings and district energy modeling tool currently under development at NREL. Through this project, NREL hopes to enable a cost-effective, scalable net-zero development infrastructure that has potential for replication and adoption across the US in future developments.
 
“The NREL partnership with Panasonic and Xcel Energy helps deliver on our shared vision for clean, affordable, and reliable energy systems at a pace and scale that matters for our society,” said Juan Torres, NREL’s associate laboratory director for energy systems integration.
 
The project uses URBANopt to analyze the projected dynamic energy consumption of corporate office space, retail space, multifamily dwellings, a hotel, parking, and street lighting within the planned development. The data will then be integrated into Xcel Energy’s grid distribution modeling tools to create a cost-effective design framework that the utility and developer can use to integrate more distributed energy resources, such as solar photovoltaics or efficient building systems, and innovative rate structures into the development before it is constructed.
 
NREL’s ESIF is a flexible and fully integrated lab space dedicated to testing residential and commercial smart energy technologies.