James Dice
James Dice
Nexus Labs
James Dice is the founder of Nexus Labs, an international community of engineers, energy managers, technology vendors, building operators, and real estate investors working together to define and bring to life “smart buildings.” Nexus publishes a weekly newsletter focused on energy efficiency, innovation, and technology in buildings and hosts a podcast featuring interviews with smart building stakeholders spanning different industry silos. Through these initiatives as well as his years of experience as a licensed engineer working in energy analytics and optimization, fault detection and diagnostics (FDD), and predictive operations and maintenance, James has built a holistic understanding of and network around smart building strategy and execution.
All Sessions by James Dice
Independent Data Layer – A Path Toward Interoperability
The multiplicity of building systems and use cases has bedeviled building managers and operators for years – most acutely in the inability to have effective data sharing between them. Solutions ranging from open-source protocols to standard nomenclatures have meant progress, but a permanent fix to interoperability has remained elusive. This session will explore the idea of an “independent data layer” (aka a data lake or data aggregation layer) and how the creation of this middle layer between systems and application layer can unlock huge benefit for the building and industry providers who embrace the idea.
Building System Interoperability
Disparate building system technologies, lack of consistent nomenclature, and organizational dissonance between OT & IT all create impediments to using/optimizing smart technology. Two case studies will explore how these challenges are being met followed by a wider SME panel in moderated discussion.
Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings
Grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEB) are changing the historic relationship between the electric utility and the buildings they serve. Today, utilities face unprecedented challenges -and opportunities – to modernize their infrastructure, eliminate carbon emissions, and remain reliable and resilient, and affordable in their energy services. Creating a smarter and more dynamic two-way communication environment with their customers offers a smart approach to building the 21st century electric utility. GEBs deploy smart technology that allow building operators to shed, shift, and modulate their building loads in response to electric grid reliability, price signals, and operational needs. This will be ever more important as electric vehicle charging becomes more common. Building owners can optimize their operations and their energy costs especially in the emerging trend toward dynamic pricing structures for electricity. This session will bring together expertise from both the utility and the building owner/manager perspective to talk about the value streams inherent in GEBs.