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Energy and Environment Directorate

Ebony Mayhorn

Ebony Mayhorn

(509) 372-4468

Biography

Dr. Ebony Mayhorn first worked at PNNL as a PhD intern in 2010 and joined fulltime in 2013. She began investigating how economic dispatch strategies should be modified to cost-effectively coordinate distributed energy resources (DERs) in low inertia isolated microgrids with high penetration of wind generation. In this work, she applied model predictive control concepts, developed and validated an isolated microgrid system model in DiGSILENT PowerFactory, and developed a co-simulation to evaluate the strategy developed. She later began working in the Buildings+Grid Integration area where she led the development of test protocols for characterizing the capabilities of energy efficient technologies (e.g., heat pump water heaters) to provide grid services (e.g., peak load reduction, grid frequency regulation, etc.). She has also worked on modeling and evaluating transactive control concepts in GridLAB-D for engaging populations of residential HVAC loads. More recently, she began working on market transformation efforts for buildings fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) technologies. As a project manager, she led work that engaged an industry technical advisory group to develop test protocols for evaluating energy estimation performance of commercially available nonintrusive load monitoring technologies using the PNNL Research Lab Homes.

Research Interests

  • Building-Grid Integrated Solutions for Improving Operational Efficiency of Buildings and the Electric Power Grid
  • Optimal Coordination of Microgrids for Large-Scale Renewable Resource Integrations
  • Defining and Testing Performance Characteristics Needed for Enabling Technologies and Connected Equipment to Support Building and Services

Education and Credentials

  • Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University
  • M.E., Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University
  • B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Prairie View A&M University

PNNL Publications

2023

  • Mayhorn E.T., J.B. Butzbaugh, and A. Meier. 2023. "A Field Study of Nonintrusive Load Monitoring Devices and Implications for Load Disaggregation." Sensors 23, no. 19:Art. No. 8523. PNNL-SA-182568. doi:10.3390/s23198253

2022

  • Butzbaugh J.B., E.T. Mayhorn, T.D. Ashley, C.E. Metzger, K.E. Fenaughty, and D. Parker. 2022. "Field Study of Grid-connected Heat Pump Water Heaters in the Southeast U.S.: The Next Right Thing." In 2022 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Climate Solutions: Efficiency, Equity and Decarbonization, August 21-26, 2022, Monterey, CA, 12-292 - 12-307. Washington, Dc:American Council for an Energy Efficiency Economy. PNNL-SA-171512.
  • Fenaughty K., D. Parker, C. Colon, R.K. Vieira, J.B. Butzbaugh, and E.T. Mayhorn. 2022. "Detailed Laboratory Evaluation of Electric Demand Load Shifting Potential of Controlled Heat Pump Water Heaters." In 2022 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Climate Solutions: Efficiency, Equity and Decarbonization, August 21-26, 2022, Monterey, CA, 1-32 - 1-47. Washington, Dc:American Council for an Energy Efficiency Economy. PNNL-SA-171963.

2021

  • Manasseh O., C.E. Metzger, E.T. Mayhorn, T.D. Ashley, and W.E. Hunt. 2021. "Nontargeted vs. Targeted vs. Smart Load Shifting Using Heat Pump Water Heaters." Energies 14, no. 22:Art. No. 7574. PNNL-SA-156587. doi:10.3390/en14227574

2020

  • Newman S.F., J. Lerond, H.M. Reeve, D.L. Vrabie, S.T. Belew, J.C. Tucker, and E.T. Mayhorn. 2020. "Pilot Study for Determining HVAC Fault Prevalence from Fault Monitoring Data." In ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, August 17- 21, 2020. Virtual, Online, 3-244 - 3-258. Washington Dc:American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. PNNL-SA-152014.

2019

  • Butzbaugh J.B., E.T. Mayhorn, and B. McNary. 2019. "Residential Electricity End-use Disaggregation Using Whole Home Disaggregation Technologies." In Proceedings of the International Energy Program Evaluation Conference, August 20-22, 2019, Denver, CO. Madison, Wisconsin:IEPEC. PNNL-SA-145141.

2017

  • Butzbaugh J.B., E.T. Mayhorn, G. Sullivan, and S.A. Whalen. 2017. Connected Equipment Maturity Model Version 1.0. PNNL-26413. Richland, WA: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. doi:10.2172/1355100.Connected Equipment Maturity Model Version 1.0
  • Mayhorn E.T., L. Xie, and K. Butler-Purry. 2017. "Multi-time Scale Coordination of Distributed Energy Resources in Isolated Power Systems." IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid 8, no. 2:998-1005. PNNL-SA-116921. doi:10.1109/TSG.2016.2547342

2016

  • Mayhorn E.T., G.P. Sullivan, J.M. Petersen, R.S. Butner, and E.M. Johnson. 2016. "Load Disaggregation Technologies: Real World and Laboratory Performance." In 2016 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, August 21-26, 2016, Pacific Grove, California, 1-1 - 1-13. Washington Dc:American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. PNNL-SA-116560.

2013

  • Mayhorn E.T., K. Kalsi, J. Lian, and M.A. Elizondo. 2013. "Model Predictive Control-based Optimal Coordination of Distributed Energy Resources." In 46th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2013), January 7-10, 2013, Wailea, Hawaii, 2237-2244. Piscataway, New Jersey:Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. PNNL-SA-88538. doi:10.1109/HICSS.2013.410
  • Mayhorn E.T., K. Kalsi, J. Lian, and M.A. Elizondo. 2013. "Model Predictive Control-based Optimal Coordination of Distributed Energy Resources." In 46th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), January 7-10, 2013, Maui, Hawaii, edited by RH Sprague, Jr., 2237-2244. Los Alamitos, California:IEEE Computer Society. PNNL-SA-92849. doi:10.1109/HICSS.2013.410

2012

  • Diao R., S. Lu, M.A. Elizondo, E.T. Mayhorn, Y. Zhang, and N.A. Samaan. 2012. "Electric Water Heater Modeling and Control Strategies for Demand Response." In Proceedings of the IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, July 22-26, 2012, San Diego, California. Piscataway, New Jersey:IEEE. PNNL-SA-82958. doi:10.1109/PESGM.2012.6345632
  • Mayhorn E.T., K. Kalsi, M.A. Elizondo, W. Zhang, S. Lu, N.A. Samaan, and K. Butler-Purry. 2012. "Optimal Control of Distributed Energy Resources using Model Predictive Control." In Proceedigns of the IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting, July 22-26, 2012, San Diego, California. Piscataway, New Jersey:IEEE. PNNL-SA-84396. doi:10.1109/PESGM.2012.6345596

2011

  • Chassin F.S., E.T. Mayhorn, M.A. Elizondo, and S. Lu. 2011. "Load Modeling and Calibration Techniques for Power System Studies." In Proceedings of the 43rd North American Power Symposium (NAPS), August 4-6, 2011, Boston, Massachusetts. Pscataway, New Jersey:IEEE. PNNL-SA-79321. doi:10.1109/NAPS.2011.6024878
  • Lu S., M.A. Elizondo, N.A. Samaan, K. Kalsi, E.T. Mayhorn, R. Diao, and C. Jin, et al. 2011. "Control Strategies for Distributed Energy Resources to Maximize the Use of Wind Power in Rural Microgrids." In Proceedings of the IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, July 24-29, 2011, Detroit, Michigan. Piscataway, New Jersey:Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. PNNL-SA-76607. doi:10.1109/PES.2011.6039787

Energy and Environment

Core Research Areas

Contacts