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Ryan Firestone, Ph.D., joined Summit Blue as a Consultant in May 2007. He was an associate with Summit Blue from August 2004 until May 2007. Dr. Firestone brings experience in engineering analysis, energy-use modeling, and site verification and survey. In recent years, Dr. Firestone has worked with Summit Blue as an associate, conducting on-site measure verification at commercial and residential facilities and researching direct load control technologies. Recent project work includes: Review of Direct Load Control Technologies and Program Design, Public Service Electric & Gas, Jersey Central Power & Light, and Atlantic City Electric. This project provided several New Jersey electric utilities with up-to-date data on direct load control (DLC) technologies and programs for residential and small commercial sites. Dr. Firestone was responsible for communicating with DLC manufacturers and developing a standardized data set for comparison of technologies across vendors. Evaluation of the New Jersey SmartStart Program, New Jersey Clean Energy Program. This project evaluated the SmartStart program which provided rebates on energy efficient technologies for commercial and industrial buildings. Dr. Firestone conducted surveys with participants and non-participants to assess knowledge of the program, participant satisfaction, and participant utilization of the program. Evaluation of RightLights: Energy Efficient Lighting Program for Commercial Lighting, Pacific Gas and Electric. This project evaluated the RightLights rebate program for energy efficiency lighting in commercial buildings. Dr. Firestone conducted on-site surveys and measure verification to assess customer knowledge of and satisfaction with the program, to quantify energy savings from the program, and to identify free-ridership. San Francisco Peak Energy Program, San Francisco Office of the Environment. Dr. Firestone conducted field verification activities on commercial retrofit projects for a verification and impact study of the San Francisco Peak Energy Program. This project involved data logging on various devices, including indoor lighting and motor applications. Residential HVAC Interest Rate Buy-down Program Process and Impact Evaluation, Electric and Gas Industry Association. Dr. Firestone conducted field verification and participant interviews at various residential installations of split AC, heat pumps, small packaged systems, and furnace applications throughout Northern California. Prior to working with Summit Blue, Dr. Firestone worked at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for five years on topics including small-scale distributed generation; investment and operations optimization of on-site building energy technologies; and greenhouse gas emissions mitigation potential of distributed energy resource technologies, such as on-site cogeneration, solar thermal heating and cooling, and photovoltaics in California. His recently completed dissertation describes the algorithm he developed for real-time economic and/or environmental optimization of integrated systems of combined heat and power (CHP), renewables and demand response at commercial facilities under uncertainty in energy loads, CHP availability, renewables intermittency, and energy prices. As a case study, he developed building energy simulations of United States Postal Service Processing and Distribution Centers in several U.S cities and applied the optimization algorithm in order to quantify the value of intelligent, automated decision making over typical heuristic controls. Dr. Firestone has also worked as a consultant to photovoltaic and power storage distributors on investment and operations optimization and on electric tariff structure. Dr. Firestone holds a B.S. from Brown University, a M.S. from the University of Texas at El Paso, and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, all in mechanical engineering. | 