Software Solutions

AESC’s software practice was established in 1996 with the sole purpose to develop custom tools for utility Demand Side Management programs; specifically, the first California statewide Standard Performance Contract incentive calculators for SCE, PG&E and SDG&E. For the past 20 years, the AESC team has pioneered the development of Intelligent Agent Technologies under California Energy Commission PIER and U.S. Department of Energy SBIR grants, and created and maintained a variety of automated online application and calculation tools for its customer in the utility community.

More recently, the AESC software team has developed a suite of customized calculation tools for several leading North American utilities. The AESC approach leverages specialized knowledge of energy engineering, utility and regulatory issues within a very efficient software development environment, creating a user experience that meets today’s consumer software standards.

Approach

AESC excels at tailoring software solutions to meet specific utility needs. The team excels at developing and evolving software products to meet changing policy and regulatory requirements. AESC is also well versed in systems integration, data security and accessibility, including the development of middle-ware solutions to interface with corporate enterprise systems. It should be noted that AESC’s cloud server systems for developing and hosting utility solutions meet rigorous data security standards, including third-party SOC-2 Type-1 audits on an annual basis.

Examples of software development tasks that AESC routinely fulfill include, but are not limited to:

Scoping Phase

  • Determine Business & User Requirements
  • Develop System Requirements
  • Develop System Verification

Development Phase

  • Develop Software
  • Perform Formal Testing
  • Deploy Software

Operations & Maintenance Phase

  • Provide Product Support & Maintenance
  • Provide User Support
  • Provide Training
  • Provide Manual

Praxis

Praxis by AESC is a user-friendly, customizable software platform that accelerates utility programs and accommodates a variety of technical and non-technical users. Users employ Praxis both as a single-use energy modeling tool and as a suite of integrated solutions that encompass modeling, building auditing, energy reporting and incentive application processing. The platform can be used both as a single-use energy modeling tool for specific measures such as lighting, compressed air, VFDs, HVAC and Energy Management Systems, or as a suite of integrated solutions that encompass modeling, building auditing, energy reporting and incentive application processing.

The calculation engine behind Praxis is driven by decades of energy engineering expertise, a comprehensive understanding of building systems and calculation tool development. Praxis is compliant with industry standards for full building thermal model using 8760 weather data and selectable baselines (CA Title 24, ASHRAE 90.1, etc.).

The results are consistent, reliable and transparent with the imbedded assumptions and algorithms explained in comprehensive methodology documentation designed to satisfy regulatory requirements. The tool leverages this technical intelligence to reduce engineering review time, program costs and ultimately increase participation.

Each deployment of Praxis is customized to each utility program to accommodate unique measure mixes, code baselines and branding guidelines. The tools can be deployed as SaaS with a monthly subscription for use, or developed as standalone package owned and hosted by the utility while supported by AESC.

Praxis in Practice

Current Praxis customers include the following utilities:

Two Major California Municipal Utilities

California Investor-Owned Utilities

An East Coast & Midwest Utility

A Northwest Efficiency Program

AESC is currently in development of a mobile-optimized Praxis tool to perform agricultural and industrial scoping assessments (energy audits) for Pacific Northwest utility programs. This deployment will utilize the Praxis framework with enhancements to the data collection and reporting features tailored to the agricultural and industrial sectors.

A Nationwide Design/Build HVAC Contractor & ESCO

This company has adopted Praxis as its enterprise solution for building modeling and HVAC energy calculations. AESC will work closely with its building management solutions group to customize the software to provide both energy estimation, portfolio optimization and financial feasibility analysis. AESC provided trial access to Praxis on an evaluation basis and, within one month, the software was being used in five states.

Praxis is now accessible from a web-based cloud environment (Microsoft Azure). Praxis can be run from any internet-based device, such as a PC, an iPad, a tablet or even a smart phone. This allows the user to perform quick analysis in the field or at a customer’s site. The cloud implementation also allows AESC to employ very high levels of data, user and customer security.