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ORCA wins commercial readiness award

September 25, 2020

University Relations

The , or ORCA, was recently selected as the top staff-led innovation with the highest commercial readiness in the 2019-2020 ������ IDEA award competition. ORCA was developed by ������'s Alaska Center for Energy and Power, or ACEP.

The awards, hosted by the ������ , recognize innovative solutions from submitted invention disclosures from ������ and University of Alaska Southeast for the academic year.

The award also acknowledges ORCA’s capacity to make an immediate impact, the potential to scale and the capabilities of the innovative team.

“We are honored to receive this recognition from the university for what was truly a team effort to meet a research need for collection of powerhouse energy load data in remote Alaska communities,” said Erin Whitney, the program manager. “Even more fun is that this effort prominently featured students, who gained valuable real-world experience while contributing meaningfully to the project.”

ACEP will use the data collected with ORCA to help Alaska communities better understand their current energy consumption patterns, as well as options for incorporating local, sustainable and cost-effective sources of energy.

“This is a wonderful recognition for a true team effort,” said ACEP research engineer Michelle Wilber. “A wide body of researchers at ACEP recognized the need for better energy use data in Alaska communities. Our amazing team worked together to conceptualize and solve the problem of getting powerhouse data from remote communities in a cost-effective and robust manner by inventing, building and testing the ORCA.”

The ORCA team is supported by the .

“ONR's support is a vital part of building an innovative and resilient energy ecosystem in Alaska,” Whitney added.