When
CAEM Centennial Lecture
Friday October 23, 2026, at 2:30 p.m.
Economics Building, Room 110
Check-in at 2:15 p.m., program begins at 2:30 p.m.
Xin Jin
Leader of the Grid Edge and Advanced Controls Group
Building and Industrial Energy Innovation Center
National Laboratory of the Rockies
"Unlocking Demand Flexibility with Advanced Grid-Edge Controls"
CAEM faculty presentations by R. Douglas Stingelin, Wooyoung Jung and Liang Zhang
CENTENNIAL LECTURE REGISTRATION
Open to all current campus members and alumni. Registration is required and space is limited. Please register each individual who plans to attend.
Contact: Jennifer Kruse
ABSTRACT: Buildings and industrial loads account for 72% of U.S. energy use and nearly all retail electricity consumption in 2025. As demand grows, the grid faces increasing challenges related to peak demand, reliability, affordability, and resource integration. Demand flexibility enables energy use to be shifted, reduced, or increased in response to grid conditions—often without compromising comfort, productivity, or performance. By coordinating flexible loads and energy storage at the grid edge—where behind-the-meter resources interact with the grid—demand flexibility can improve grid utilization, reduce costs, defer infrastructure upgrades, and enhance resilience. This keynote will explore how advanced grid-edge controls can unlock flexibility across the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors, drawing on examples from the National Laboratory of the Rockies. It will also examine the role of electrochemical and thermal energy storage and how a control evaluation and research platform can accelerate the deployment of grid-edge control technologies. The keynote will conclude by discussing how national laboratories, academia, and industry stakeholders can collaborate to deploy advanced grid-edge controls and enhance the reliability and affordability of energy systems.
BIO: Xin Jin leads the Grid Edge and Advanced Controls Group at the Building and Industrial Energy Innovation Center at the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR). His research focuses on building controls, building–grid integration, smart homes and communities and the application of machine learning to the built environment. He earned his PhD in mechanical engineering from Pennsylvania State University and worked at industry R&D centers before joining NLR.
Jin has served as principal investigator for high-impact projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Defense Environmental Security Technology Certification Program, the California Energy Commission, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, utility companies and private industry. He holds 10 NLR software records and one U.S. patent, and he has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed technical publications.
Jin is a recipient of the 2025 Federal Laboratory Consortium Excellence in Technology Transfer Award, the 2024 NLR Staff Award for Outstanding Performance, the 2023 NLR Chairperson Award for Exceptional Performance and a 2018 R&D 100 Award. He serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Engineering for Sustainable Buildings and Cities and is an active member of IEEE and ASHRAE.
Faculty Presentations
R. Douglas Stingelin
Professor of Practice
"History of Architectural Engineering at the University of Arizona"
