EM&V Quarterly Update - Q2 2020

Senior Advisor's Note

After three years, what is now a tightly knit research team working on Advanced M&V pilots feels like it will be graduating in September as the project is nearing completion. The team, managed by CT DEEP and supported by U.S. DOE and state partners VT, NH, RI, and NY, includes Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Eversource, United Illuminating, and NEEP. Here is some information about Advanced M&V and the project:

In April, the team delivered a webinar on Protocols for Advanced M&V. Conveniently, just as our research is winding down, national protocols are about to roll out. The webinar covered the Efficiency Valuation Organization (EVO) Advanced M&V Software Testing Portal, its Snapshot on Advanced M&V white paper (January 2020) and a preview of an IPMVP Application Guide expected this summer. Does it meet all of program administrators’ anticipated needs? No, but it takes a large step forward. The webinar identified several gnarly issues that are being worked out.

In June, New York stakeholders convened to discuss the role of Advanced M&V in their state, and to preview results of the research team’s residential pilot. A round robin of utility program administrators, state regulators, and NYSERDA staff shared various ongoing uses of Advanced M&V and speculated about future roles. The NY Public Service Commission has been advocating for Advanced M&V in various ways for several years.

In early August, NEEP will host a virtual workshop on Advanced M&V in which the full arc of the project will be covered, including results of pilots applying Advanced M&V to both residential and commercial retrofit program data and next steps. In fireside chat format, speakers will discuss and explore the future trajectory for Advanced M&V in the industry. Please mark your calendars and be on the lookout for a registration link coming soon.

And in September at the virtual AESP summer conference, attendees will hear more about this project and the value of pilots as a learning opportunity from Michele Melley, CT DEEP, and Miles Ingram, Eversource.

 

The NEEP Policy Framework Webinar Series

This year, NEEP is bringing its Building Decarbonization Public Policy Framework to life in a series of three interactive webinars, profiling examples of the policies and programs discussed in the framework. The first two webinars set the policy stage in the region while the third is going to look into evaluation, measurement, and verification that supports policy. NEEP will take an integrative perspective when looking at policy and supporting EM&V.

The May webinar shared state government perspectives and discussed examples of plans and policies and the critical role of regulatory policy. Decarbonizing buildings requires coordinated regulatory efforts at the utility and state level. As end-uses are increasingly electrified and buildings become increasingly interactive with the grid, regulatory policy will need to evolve to better address the needs of customers and a modernized energy system. Listen to the recording.

June’s webinar zeroed in on best practices in building codes, benchmarking and building performance standards, and residential labeling. Examples of innovative programs from the Mid-Atlantic, District of Columbia, and Montgomery County, Maryland were presented. Since buildings consume about two-thirds of the United States power supply and produce about 40 percent of carbon emissions nationwide, buildings will have a considerable impact on our region’s energy use 50-100 years from now. Therefore, the built environment – including residential, commercial, and public structures – presents an opportunity to drastically reduce carbon emissions. Listen to the recording.

On July 16, the final installment of the series will describe some of the tools and approaches that enable us to design, deliver, and track progress in providing cost-effective policies and programs in support of building decarbonization. Register now!

 

Sharing ISO-New England Forecast and Forward Capacity Market Updates

This spring, ISO-NE published its annual Capacity, Energy, Loads and Transmission (CELT) report which includes a forecast of energy efficiency. What’s new this year is that ISO-NE updated its energy efficiency (EE) forecasting approach, using some end use information supplied by program administrators to improve peak estimation. This resulted in a slightly higher forecast of energy efficiency for the region overall compared to 2019.  Below we share what was forecast for this summer.

Separately, ISO-NE also observed roughly a 3-5 percent decline in consumer demand attributable to the pandemic.

Ever since 2016, energy efficiency has been a supply resource participating in the ISO-NE Forward Capacity Market (FCM). This spring, ISO-NE started some, constructive updates to a couple of notable FCM EE processes. These include:

• Changing its approach to reconstitution of the load forecast will be voted on in July at the Reliability Committee;
• Treatment of expiring efficiency measures in the FCM will be discussed in the Markets Committee in September; and
• Forecasting behind-the-meter photovoltaic generation.

Check the ISO-NE calendar for information about upcoming meetings. These are wonky issues, however, NEEP tracks them and provides brief email updates to interested stakeholders as appropriate. If you are an EE stakeholder interested in being on the distribution list to receive updates, please email Elizabeth Titus.

 

TRMs for Tomorrow

Maryland and Washington D.C. recently completed the 10^th update of a multistate technical reference manual (TRM). Like any banner birthday, this provides an opportunity for both celebration and reflection. There is lots to celebrate:

• This project originated as one of the first projects in NEEP’s former EM&V Forum and, to this day, remains one of few multijurisdictional technical reference manuals in the country, as noted in the SEEAction Guide for States: Guidance on Establishing and Maintaining Technical Reference Manuals for Energy Efficiency Measures.
• This TRM – unlike many others – is publicly available, posted on the NEEP website. This transparency helps keep industry stakeholders apprised of up-to-date EM&V results from the region because the utility evaluation reports, other sources, or latest thinking may not always be readily accessible.
• The TRM provides high value relative to cost: State officials in Washington D.C. and Maryland (and previously Delaware) have long supported the opportunity to share costs for this. At least one entity in Virginia has previously ‘borrowed’ the TRM contents (with  approval by the TRM sponsors).
• The information exchange that takes place can be rich and illuminating. Though a core group is most heavily involved in updates, evaluators, implementers, program administrators, TRM consultants, and state government staff are all welcomed at the table. Fun and TRMs are two words that don’t commonly go together, but this experience shows it is possible.

 

This is also an opportunity for reflection. By age 10, if you recall, there can be pressure to start to grow up in different ways. This TRM will be making a leap from document to database, as a way to track its history; this is something that has been under discussion off and on for most of the 10 years.  

There are other ways that TRMs can modernize. As the industry moves in new directions –such as integrated energy efficiency, energy optimization, and strategic electrification –the information necessary for planning and accounting will evolve. For example, the TRM of tomorrow may need to consider: reporting more program savings at whole building levels; reporting more detail on time profiles and geographic location of savings from buildings and end uses; approaches to impacts from fuel-switching and various heat pump installation scenarios. The audience for TRMs may expand to include managers of building benchmarking programs. Some ongoing work funded by U.S. DOE that relates to standardizing data exchange, cloud computing, and building simulation modeling points to where TRMs may be heading. Information about some of these initiatives are summarized in a recent presentation at the Home Performance Coalition: Modernizing TRMs to Support Beneficial Electrification, Grid Modernization, and Deeper Savings.

 

New NEEP Resources

• Protocols for Advanced M&V: Helping You See Clearly (2020 Webinar)
• Zero Energy Schools: Exemplar and Toolkit (2020 Webinar)

 

Mark Your Calendar

Upcoming NEEP and industry webinars and meetings of potential interest

• Smart Energy Homes & Buildings, August 27, 2020, NEEP virtual workshop
• ACEEE Summer Study, August 17-21, 2020, virtual conference
• AESP Summer Conference, Evaluation and Implementation, September 1-3, 2020, Philadelphia, PA