Smart Grid Demonstration Project at Mueller

Smart Grid Demonstration Project at Mueller

It was the perfect place for a smart grid demonstration project.

When Austin closed the Mueller municipal airport in 1999, community leaders committed to redeveloping the site into a ground-breaking mix-used, sustainable urban neighborhood. A decade later, the Mueller community is a bustling mini-city — home to the world’s first LEED-platinum hospital, dozens of green-built office buildings and stores and over 1,000 residents who call themselves “Pioneers.”

Mueller at a Glance

  • 700 acres
  • World’s largest LEED-ND certified community (2009)
  • Three miles from downtown
  • More than 4,900 planned homes
  • 4.5M sq. ft. planned office and retail
  • Ultra green-built
  • Reclaimed water system
  • Carbon-sequestering landscaping
  • 25% affordable housing

10 Pretty Darn Interesting Stimulus-Funded Smart Grid Projects

“This project in Austin is getting a lot of attention… Perhaps as interesting as what they’re doing is how this progressive not-for- profit entity is making the Pecan Street Project happen.” — Smart Grid Today

Supported by a $10.4 million smart grid demonstration grant from the Department of Energy (and more than $14 million in matching funds from project partners), Pecan Street Inc. is leading a team of researchers from The University of Texas, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Environmental Defense Fund to develop and test an integrated clean energy smart grid of tomorrow in the homes of today.

We are working with Austin Energy, the nation’s largest seller of green power and the first utility in the world to create a green building code (which became the basis of the LEED rating system).

Over a five-year timeline, this team will test systems in up to 1,000 residences and 75 businesses in and around the Mueller community that will include:

  • distributed clean energy
  • energy storage technologies
  • smart grid water and smart grid irrigation systems
  • smart appliances
  • plug-in electric vehicles
  • advanced meters and home energy management systems
  • green building
  • new electricity pricing models

It’s an ambitious effort intended to not only “smarten” up the utility’s grid, but find true benefits that energy customers want.  And it’s only natural that the place to take on the technology and environmental challenges of reinventing electricity would be Austin…a dynamic high tech community with a passionate green soul.

We are currently recruiting homeowners in and around the Mueller community that would like to participate in this one-of-a-kind research. For more information about the demonstration project at Mueller, please contact Cate Smithson (csmithson@pecanstreet.org).

To learn more about this project and meet some of our participants in the Mueller community, watch our latest video.