In recent decades, efforts to gather end-use load data appear to be scattered and minimal across the Pacific Northwest and East regions (the Regions). Although a significant amount of data was gathered through Bonneville Power Administration’s End-Use Load and Consumer Assessment Program (ELCAP) in the mid-1980’s through the early 1990’s, confidence in the data has waned as technologies change and consumer behavior evolves. The overall objective of this project is to assess and catalog the more recently completed existing end-use and load shape data studies that may be useful to the Regions.
This phase of the load data update will identify gaps in and problems with the existing load shape data and establish priorities and study scopes for load shape improvements to support energy efficiency program planning, electricity markets and environmental policy. Elements of the work include:
- Research and inventory the existing load shape data available
- Determine what load shape data is necessary to meet utility energy efficiency program, ISO-New England and PJM Capacity Markets (CMs), and air quality regulatory needs
- Identify weaknesses in the existing data for use in efficiency programs, capacity markets, and air quality regulations
- Evaluate the transferability and applicability of existing load shape data to the Regions
- Provide a road map for meeting future short term and long term end-use metering needs.
Findings and recommendations are provided at a high level from a region-wide perspective. There were limitations that were not possible to capture in this study, including diverse data needs among program administrators. Therefore, we recognize that specific program administrators may have different priorities for data collection than what was identified. This study is sponsored by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Regional Technical Forum (RTF) and the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) Evaluation Measurement and Verification (EMV) Forum.