Energy Toolbase’s Acumen EMS™ project deployments have continued to grow and expand throughout the US and several other countries since the merger with Pason Systems in 2019. ETB’s Acumen EMS™ controls are currently deployed or under contract on over 60 projects, totaling more than 30 Megawatt hours (MWh), and with more demand for our storage controls software, we’re continuing to grow and staff our Acumen Solutions Engineering Team (ASE) to bring more opportunities and projects online.
Our ASE team is essential to the success of projects and ensuring that our controls software is performing as expected for the end customer and maximizing the value of their asset. Jules LaPrairie is the Solutions Engineering Lead for the ASE Team and has been with the company for almost two years. He shares his insights into what excites him about his team and how Acumen EMS™ will play a vital role in more deployments.
Q: Tell us about your background in the renewables/energy industry? What were you involved in prior to joining Energy Toolbase?
A: My career before Energy Toolbase was actually focused in different IoT domains. I’ve worked in intelligent lighting solutions, large-scale audio, and consumer wearables. Energy storage control technology has a strong IoT theme, and I’ve always been interested in renewable energy technologies, so bringing those interests together at ETB has been great.
Q: What is your role at Energy Toolbase, specifically within the Product team?
A: I lead the Acumen Solutions Engineering Team (ASE for short). We make sure that every Acumen Energy Management System deployment out in the world is working as well as it possibly can. Often this means working closely with the Product team, Sales, and Acumen developers.
Q: What are some exciting things you’re working on and working towards at Energy Toolbase?
A: The ASE team has a long list of brand-new Acumen deployments that will be coming online soon, and I really enjoy constantly finding ways to improve the deployment experience for both ETB and our customers.
Q: What has been your favorite project to work on in your time at Energy Toolbase?
A: When I was a developer with the hardware integrations team, I got to implement Acumen’s support for the Sunspec standard. I’m really looking forward to seeing that standard win more adoption throughout our industry.
Q: What is something about the solar and/or energy storage industry that excites you?
A: I’m excited about energy storage for its potential to enable a wide variety of generation technologies to participate with energy grids in meaningful ways that perhaps they couldn’t otherwise. The sun doesn’t shine at night and the wind only blows when it wants to. I love that energy storage enables site owners to take control of the economics of their energy use in a way that wasn’t possible before, and I’m excited about the possibility of electric vehicles participating as distributed energy resources down that the consumer level as well.
To learn more about our Acumen EMS™ product offering, visitwww.energytoolbase.com/control or read some of our project deployment case studieshere.
Here are some fun facts about Jules to help get to know him better:
