Investment in energy efficiency and demand response is often the most cost-effective way to achieve aggressive energy policy goals.
E3 has been deeply involved in evaluation of energy efficiency programs in California. E3’s innovative area- and time-specific method for estimating marginal costs was adopted by the California Public Utilities Commission in 2004 and are used by investor-owned utilities to evaluate the cost effectiveness of energy efficiency and demand response programs. E3’s methodology was vetted in a stakeholder process with an open and transparent, publicly available spreadsheet tool known as the ‘E3 Caculator.’ Multiple stakeholders in California continue to rely on the E3 Calculator when considering the cost-effectiveness of energy efficiency and other programs. E3’s seminal work on energy efficiency was further adapted to inform the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency sponsored by the EPA and DOE and has been approved for use in other jurisdictions by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC).
The Energy Efficiency and Demand Response practice includes:- EE and DR cost-effectiveness
- EE and DR potential
- Building standards
- Appliance standards
Contact: Snuller Price
Sample Projects +Ontario Power Authority. E3 developed the energy efficiency program cost-effectiveness and reporting tool that is used by the Ontario Power Authority to aggregate results reported from over 50 utilities. The Excel-based tool includes custom dialogue boxes for easy measure selection and data entry and contains a list of standard measures, an area for entering custom measures, and a selection of avoided cost forecasts and load shapes for use in performing standard cost-benefit tests.
EPA / DOE. E3 has supported the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency (Action Plan) since the program began in 2005. E3 has contributed best practices related to energy efficiency resource planning, non-wires alternatives, retail rate design, decoupling and utility financial impacts. For the Leadership Group of the Action Plan, E3 developed several chapters of the Action Plan report, and developed guidebooks on business models for energy efficiency, utility rate design to encourage energy efficiency, utility shareholder impacts, and integrating energy efficiency into resource planning.
CPUC. E3 partnered with the Heschong Mahone Group (HMG) to determine the cost-effective and achievable potential of demand response in California. The study evaluated different program designs, and included detailed load impact assessments for a wide variety of customer-types, end-uses, and climate zones.
PG&E. As part of an integrated resource planning study, E3 evaluated the potential for energy efficiency and demand response programs to defer a planned substation and related distribution investments. We found that because of strong growth in the study area (confirmed by an independent forecast by E3), the value of deferring the substation would be relatively low on a $/kW basis and DSM would not be able to cost-effectively defer the substation.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. E3 reviewed the various methods for estimating residential demand response to dispatchable price/curtailment signals. The recommended approach is a regression framework that enables a customer-specific comparison of before- and after-DR load profiles, thus yielding accurate customer-specific load impact estimates. This work is summarized in C.K. Woo and K. Herter (2006) Residential Demand Response Evaluation Scoping Study, LBNL Report-61090, report submitted to Demand Response Research Center, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
