Coming to the ACEEE Summer Study?

Meet the Recurve team and learn about the newest innovations in scaling beneficial electrification with targeting, unleashing solutions with FLEXmarket, and expanding demand flexibility for grid stability with open source measurement.

Panel 2: Residential Buildings: Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation
Session 1: Expanding Energy Efficiency Open Source Measurement Methods to Incorporate Demand Response for Grid Stability
‍Joe Glass
Date: Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Time: 8:30AM - 10:00 AM

A modern demand-side portfolio must help balance and decarbonize the grid at a time of increasing heat waves, peak supply constraints, and a rapidly evolving generation mix. Isolated energy efficiency, electrification, and demand response programs cannot meet these holistic challenges alone. Developing integrated efficiency and load management programs capable of providing genuine demand flexibility and optimal carbon reductions requires transparent, meter-based measurement that treats all resources the same way.

In this presentation, Recurve's Joe Glass explains how a new set of open-source comparison group methods called FLEXmeter can be applied to both metered energy efficiency and demand response. These methods have been developed and tested for the US Department of Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) with the support of numerous program administrators and implementers. 

FLEXmeter methods use site-based matching on customer characteristics and load shape produces quality comparison groups. Using CalTRACK and the OpenEEmeter, hourly calculations are performed to generate long-term and “event” baselines, and a normalized difference of differences computation yields adjusted savings that can be attributed to energy efficiency or demand response impacts. These methods and open-source code base are already being deployed to measure integrated programs in California.

Panel 4: Commercial Buildings: Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation
Session 1: Demand FLEXmarket — Creating a Market Access Model to Unleash Solutions Providers and Scale Demand Flexibility
Carmen Best
Date: Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Time: 8:30AM - 10:00 AM

On December 2, 2021, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved a unique solution to quickly deliver load reductions to the state in response to the Governor’s emergency call to action. In D.21-12-011, the CPUC allocated $150M to the newly named “Market Access” program as a primary means of addressing summer reliability concerns. The Commission cited the simplicity, flexibility, and scale that the program offers as reasons for adopting this model so quickly.

In the paper and her presentation, Carmen Best will explain how “Market Access” was built on the Demand FLEXmarket, a model for demand-side programs that combines pay-for-performance with an open market of qualified aggregators and implementers to deliver demand flexibility solutions to residential and commercial customers. Carmen will then lay out the key attributes of the Market Access Program that made it a compelling choice for emergency action. These attributes include tying the program to Total System Benefits (avoided utility cost for each hour of the year) to remove traditional prescriptive barriers and incentivizing hourly impacts based on avoided costs to create value parity between demand flexibility and other grid resources. These attributes allow utilities and other load-serving entities to design high-precision programs to achieve distributed energy integration, equity, and grid reliability goals.

Panel 5: Scaling Whole Building Retrofits
Session 1: Meter-Based Targeting for Beneficial Electrification at Scale
Mia Oppelstrup
Date: Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Time: 8:30AM - 10:00 AM

California aims to create a carbon-neutral economy by 2045. Doing so requires electrifying most of the State’s building stock. To spur market development for electrification, the Technology and Equipment for Clean Heating (TECH Clean CA) initiative aims to enable distributors and contractors to stock, sell, and install low-emissions heat pumps for residential retrofit projects. This initiative supports and extends heat pump space and water heating incentive programs statewide, with an emphasis on increasing access and affordability for low-income households. While these goals are laudable, the high cost of electricity compared to natural gas may have equity and bill impacts that need to be understood and mitigated. 

In this presentation, Mia Oppelstrup presents research from a recent study that analyzes over 350,000 northern California residential meters. By disaggregating temperature-dependent and water heating loads with electrification impact projections, the study shows that while electrification could save 24% of optimally targeted customers over $200 per year, 46% would see marginal savings, and 30% of customers could actually see bills increase. 

As electrification programs develop, programs have the opportunity to use individual meter data to find the customers ideally suited to electrification, allowing programs to mitigate the potential equity impacts of electrification policy and devote resources to those most likely to benefit.