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Opinion Dynamics to Support Vermont in Developing a Groundbreaking Clean Heat Standard
WALTHAM, MA, April 16, 2024 – Opinion Dynamics is pleased to announce we have been selected by the Vermont Public Utility Commission to support the...
Opinion Dynamics Welcomes Dr. Jim Stewart
Opinion Dynamics Welcomes Dr. Jim Stewart, Senior Director of Data AnalyticsWALTHAM, MA, February 27, 2024 – Opinion Dynamics is pleased to welcome...
Charging Forward: Top Six Utility Transportation Electrification Solutions Set to Take Off in 2024
Charging Forward: Top Six Utility Transportation Electrification Solutions Set to Take Off in 2024Featured on Energy Central and published in their...
Winterizing Demand Response
By Jordan FolksMount Hood, the largest mountain in Oregon, recently had its first blizzard in over a decade. Although spared blizzard conditions,...
You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat: Market Transformation in the Age of Climate Change
By Erin Kempster Today, I want to talk to you about insurance. And healthcare. And policy. Oh, and energy, too. Because the impacts of the ways we...
TECH Webinar
Opinion Dynamics is the evaluator for TECH Clean California, a large-scale initiative that aims to transform the California market for space- and...
2023 Fall Conference Series
Ahhh, Fall, that time of year when the temperatures get a little cooler, the air is filled with pumpkin spice, and our amazing subject matter...
Podcast- The Authentic Partnerships of the Ameren MDI Program
Honored Guests Contact InformationAngie OstaszewskiSenior Project & Program Manager at Ameren IllinoisPaul DouglasPresident and Co-founder of...
Looking Beyond the Peaks to See the Full Resource Potential of EVs
Looking Beyond the Peaks to See the Full Resource Potential of EVsBy Hilary PolisAs electric vehicle (EV) sales increase, utilities, regulatory...
Terms Matter: Teasing Apart the Differences Between Energy Equality, Equity, and Justice
Terms Matter: Teasing Apart the Differences Between Energy Equality, Equity, and JusticeBy Dr. Sarah Naiman While there has been a longstanding...
IRA funding and the energy landscape
Timestamps are included in the YouTube description online as well as links to resources mentioned in the discussion. Links can also be found listed...
Four Untapped Opportunities to Improve the EV Journey for Everyday Drivers
Four Untapped Opportunities to Improve the Everyday Driver's EV JourneyBy Hilary Polis Current EV drivers are willing to put up with long wait times...
Recent Articles
Electrification & Decarbonization
You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat: Market Transformation in the Age of Climate Change
By Erin Kempster Today, I want to talk to you about insurance. And healthcare. And policy. Oh, and energy, too. Because the impacts of the ways we live, work, eat, and get around don’t respect industry distinctions. I work in the energy industry; she works in...
TECH Webinar
Opinion Dynamics is the evaluator for TECH Clean California, a large-scale initiative that aims to transform the California market for space- and water-heating heat pumps. We conducted a first-of-its-kind survey with nearly 1,000 heat pump customers to understand...
The Golden State is Baking, Can Passive Home Construction Offer Relief?
By Kessie Avseikova California recently endured a punishing heat wave in the beginning of September that shattered temperature records and had residents see back-to-back Flex Alerts issued by the California Independent System Operator to avert rolling blackouts amid...
Effective Workforce Training Programs Critical to Meeting the Demands of a New Energy Economy
The United States is at a critical juncture for workforce, education, and training to play a pivotal role in decarbonizing the energy sector while simultaneously driving COVID-19 economic recovery and ensuring a diverse workforce. Building decarbonization and...
Lessons Learned from Mature Heat Pump Programs
Article by Jen Loomis and Ellen SteinerHeat pump technology is not new, and neither are programs incentivizing heat pump units. Heat pump adoption has been slow in the United States despite technological advances that have increased efficiency and enabled heat pump...
Recent Articles
Transportation Electrification
Charging Forward: Top Six Utility Transportation Electrification Solutions Set to Take Off in 2024
Charging Forward: Top Six Utility Transportation Electrification Solutions Set to Take Off in 2024Featured on Energy Central and published in their January/February Special IssueBy Hilary Polis Last year was marked by a mixture of progress and setbacks in the...
Looking Beyond the Peaks to See the Full Resource Potential of EVs
Looking Beyond the Peaks to See the Full Resource Potential of EVsBy Hilary PolisAs electric vehicle (EV) sales increase, utilities, regulatory bodies, and other key energy industry stakeholders are grappling with how to prepare their existing infrastructure for the...
Four Untapped Opportunities to Improve the EV Journey for Everyday Drivers
Four Untapped Opportunities to Improve the Everyday Driver's EV JourneyBy Hilary Polis Current EV drivers are willing to put up with long wait times to get a vehicle, sub-par public charging experiences, and a need for clarity around rebate/tax credit criteria, among...
A Dynamic Look at The EV ADR Study revelations and the road ahead
A DYNAMIC LOOK AT THE EV ADR STUDY REVELATIONS AND THE ROAD AHEADThe PG&E EV ADR Study revealed several considerations and priority areas that the industry as a whole, will need to focus on for optimizing the use of EVs as a grid resource in the next five years....
A Dynamic Look at EV managed charging and grid resource potential
A Dynamic Look at EV managed charging and grid resource potentialOpinion Dynamics conducted a technology field test with two vendors that control chargers directly (ChargePoint® and Enel X®) and one vendor that leverages vehicle telematics to control EV charging...
Recent Articles
Demand Flexibility
Winterizing Demand Response
By Jordan FolksMount Hood, the largest mountain in Oregon, recently had its first blizzard in over a decade. Although spared blizzard conditions, nearby Portland received its fair share of ice during the storm—resulting in significant storm-related power outages...
Designing Equitable Rate Structures
By: Jordan Folks An equitable rate structure is one that does not require any customer segment to carry a disproportionate portion of the cost to serve while ensuring the service provider is able to meet grid demand and recoup the cost of energy procurement and...
Electric Demand Response-ability in California
The official start of Fall this past week, marked by the Fall Equinox, seems to have crept up out of nowhere when we reflect on the record-shattering last few weeks of summer. Over 1,000 heat records in the American West were broken during the first week of September...
Moving Beyond “One Rate to Rule Them All” -The Equity Case for TOU Rates
As energy providers harness the power of their AMI upgrades and transition from volumetric to time-of-use (TOU) rate structures, there is concern that TOU rates could cause adverse financial impacts for low income and disadvantaged communities. However, there is a...
Discrete Choice Modeling: Choices Speak Louder Than Words
An important yet difficult challenge for any energy-efficiency program is the ability to quantify savings directly attributable to program offerings. To do so, one needs to understand the degree to which customers would have taken comparable energy-saving measures in...
Recent Uploads
Podcasts
Podcast- The Authentic Partnerships of the Ameren MDI Program
Honored Guests Contact InformationAngie OstaszewskiSenior Project & Program Manager at Ameren IllinoisPaul DouglasPresident and Co-founder of The JPI GroupShow LinksShowcasing the amazing content featured in this podcast is why we choose to put the links first! To...
IRA funding and the energy landscape
Timestamps are included in the YouTube description online as well as links to resources mentioned in the discussion. Links can also be found listed below the transcipt here for convenience.Contact Information Erin Kempster: ekempster@opiniondynamics.com | Jeana...
Threads Of Equity – Residential Decarbonization
Hi, everyone, and welcome to today’s installment of our Threads of Equity podcast. My name is Sarah Naiman. I’m joined today by Jen Loomis, and we are going to be talking about decarbonization and equity within the work that we do. So do you mind introducing yourself to our listeners?
Podcast-Real-time Evaulation – A Primer
Today we are going to talk about embedded evaluation, what it is how it differs from other EM&V approaches, and share some of our experiences utilizing embedded evaluations with our clients in the energy industry.
Threads of Equity Series – Podcast – Equity and Decarbonization
In our latest podcast, Hannah Merriam and Jen Loomis discuss the hot topic of decarbonization. In the first of a series of decarb-focused podcasts, they consider different building types, how clean the grid is, the role of equity, renters versus owners, and what consumers can do to support building electrification
Recent Articles
News & PR
Opinion Dynamics to Support Vermont in Developing a Groundbreaking Clean Heat Standard
WALTHAM, MA, April 16, 2024 – Opinion Dynamics is pleased to announce we have been selected by the Vermont Public Utility Commission to support the development of the Vermont Clean Heat Standard. As the technical consultant to the Commission, Opinion Dynamics will be...
Opinion Dynamics Welcomes Dr. Jim Stewart
Opinion Dynamics Welcomes Dr. Jim Stewart, Senior Director of Data AnalyticsWALTHAM, MA, February 27, 2024 – Opinion Dynamics is pleased to welcome Dr. Jim Stewart as our Senior Director of Data Analytics. As an Energy Economist, Jim has leveraged his expertise in...
Sharyn Barata to Serve on ACEEE Board of Directors
Sharyn Barata to Serve on ACEEE Board of DirectorsWALTHAM, MA., January 5, 2023 – Opinion Dynamics is pleased to announce Sharyn Barata, Senior Vice President of Industry Engagement for Opinion Dynamics has been elected to serve on the Board of Directors for the...
Opinion Dynamics Welcomes Jessica Raker, Director of Engineering
Opinion Dynamics Welcomes Jessica Raker, Director of EngineeringWALTHAM, MA., August 15, 2022 – Opinion Dynamics is pleased to welcome Jessica Raker as the new Director of Engineering. Jessica brings over 20 years of diverse engineering and industry experience with a...
Opinion Dynamics to Evaluate the Largest Single-Utility EV Charging Program in the US
News from Opinion Dynamics WALTHAM, Mass, July 27, 2022 – Opinion Dynamics is pleased to announce we have contracted with Southern California Edison (SCE) to evaluate its Charge Ready EV charging program for light-duty vehicles. The largest single-utility electric...
Recent Articles
Opinion
Terms Matter: Teasing Apart the Differences Between Energy Equality, Equity, and Justice
Terms Matter: Teasing Apart the Differences Between Energy Equality, Equity, and JusticeBy Dr. Sarah Naiman While there has been a longstanding awareness of individuals’ disparate access to energy goods, services, and decision-making processes, in recent years, we’ve...
Honoring Trailblazers- Mary Jackson
On this day in history, we honor the extraordinary life and legacy of Mary Jackson, a skilled mathematician, scientist, and aerospace engineer. Mary overcame segregation and gender bias to become NASA’s first Black female engineer in 1958. In the later part of her 34...
There and back again – from office to home to hybrid
Reflections from Sabrina Skelly's bedside office 2020 split whatever notion we may have had of “business as usual” wide open. It sent many of us spiraling into makeshift office spaces with nothing more than a laptop, charger, and false sense that we would be back to...
Partnerships, collaborations, alliances, and networks – no matter the nomenclature, their benefit to utilities is undeniable
Partnerships and collaborations (or alliances and networks, depending on the favored term of choice) are increasingly used throughout the public and private sectors to design and deliver goods and services. Effective partnerships drive outcomes that are greater than...
Leveraging workforce education and training to drive economic recovery, advance equity, and accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy
Prior to the pandemic, the energy sector had been one of the fastest-growing sectors in the United States. However, the energy sector was not immune from the pandemic-induced economic recession, and job losses were steep. According to the US Energy Employment Report...
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