Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings

Course Description

In this technical presentation by Deane Evans, Executive Director of the Center for Building Knowledge at NJIT, provides an early glimpse of where electrification, the electrical grid and buildings are headed in the future. It introduces a new and rapidly evolving building typology – Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings (GEB’s) – that envisions a future in which buildings operate dynamically with the grid and continuously interact with and optimize distributed energy resources. Deane gave this technical presentation at the February 19, 2026 Energy Efficiency Stakeholder meeting. 

Recorded on February 19, 2026.

Learning Objectives:

• Define what Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings (GEBs) are.
• Discuss four key characteristics of Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings.
• Describe the potential impact of GEBs on the safety, security, and sustainability of buildings and their occupants.
• Explain how GEBs can benefit the electrical grid and how the grid can benefit GEBs.

About the Instructor:

Deane Evans, FAIA, Executive Director, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Center for Building Knowlegde. Mr. Evans is a registered architect and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He currently directs the Center for Building Knowledge (CBK) at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He has over 30 years’ experience – in both the private and public  sectors – in creating and disseminating information on high performance buildings; including jobs as: Senior Principal at Steven Winter Associates, a building systems consulting firm; Vice President for Research at the American Institute of Architects in Washington, DC; and the founding director of the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) program at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. In his current position, Mr. Evans directs CBK, a multi-disciplinary research and technical assistance center focused on improving the performance of buildings and communities. 

Course Outline

• What is a Grid-Interactive Efficient Building (GEB)?

• Why GEBS? Why Now?

• How GEBS Can Help the Grid

• How GEBS Can Help Buildings

• GSA, ASHRAE and GEBS

• The GridOptimal Buildings Initiative

• Exam

• Certificate: 0.5 American Institute of Architects credits awarded on completion