Research Tracker

Does the combination of high use alerts and e-mail messages produce higher energy savings over just the home energy reports (HERs)? We would like to understand the level of effort it takes to launch this type of project. Cowlitz PUD in conjunction with O Power is conducting research to determine the incremental energy saving impact of an Advanced Digital Feedback and Communication Campaign in addition to O Power's Home Energy Reporting Program. Cowlitz will send 25,000 Home Energy Reports (HERs) to their customers while engaging 12,500 of them through an Advanced Digital Campaign using high use alerts and e-mail messaging. The HERs program uses billing data, census data, and other information to create a neighbor-to-neighbor billing comparison to try and change human behavior resulting in kilowatt hours saved. The hypothesis is that the customer will be moved to use less energy, operate their home more efficiently or to make no-cost, low-cost, or deemed measure changes in their home if they can compare their use with like customers. The Advanced Digital Campaign is experimental. Cowlitz is one of just a few utilities testing this approach. Research results will be available in August of 2013. Improvement over previous research: Cowlitz has advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and will be able to provide 24-hour interval data making this the first time in the Northwest that HERs has been combined with interval data.

Does the combination of the O Power's Home Energy Reports (HERs) and the Social Energy social media application create incremental energy savings impacts? This project seeks to determine the incremental energy saving impact of Social Energyan energy efficiency social media application. Social Energy enables users to compare their energy use to a self-defined group. This Social Energy Campaign is experimental. Clark is one of a few utilities testing this approach. This study will combine the Social Energy media application along with O Power's Home Energy Reporting Program. Clark will send Home Energy Reports (HERs) to 20,000 customers while engaging 10,000 of these customer through Social Energy. This application will allow Clark's customers to create their own online efficiency communities. The project has been implemented, evaluation program done during 2014 to understand the program's impact on energy savings. Improvement on previous work: Testing this application with a smaller NW utility and understanding what level of effort is involved in launching this type of program as well as determining the savings impact.

The project goal is to demonstrate the substantial demand response (DR) and energy savings are achievable in supermarket refrigeration systems and that the integrity and safety of refrigerated products will be maintained to minimize risks to supermarket owners and customers. The project plans to analyze supermarket refrigeration energy loads in the Pacific Northwest for both demand response and energy efficiency. The purpose is to identify the most promising control strategies and technologies that can yield energy savings and demand response as part of an integrated management approach.

Demonstrate Strategic Energy Management Analytics (Build Plus) in 2 buildings for 1 year. This research builds on a tool created with funding through BPAs Technology Innovation Research and Development Program. Work has continued to refine the tool and research needs to be conducted to verify savings. The tools will be installed at the facilities for up to 1 year starting in 2016 and analyses will follow in late 2017.

Provide enhanced residential efficiency analysis tools tailored for the Pacific Northwest. 1. A residential building energy analysis tool based on BEopt/EnergyPlus, used to identify cost-optimal efficiency packages 2. A regional residential efficiency analysis tool driven by BEopt/EnergyPlus simulations/optimizations and calibrated to Residential Building Stock Assessment (RBSA) data, used to assess residential building energy conservation potential The project has been completed and additional Technology Transfer activities are being explored to promote the use of these tools throughout the Pacific NW.

The goal of this project is to advance air-conditioner and protection or control modeling for implementation in the Phase 2 of Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) composite load model. This project will investigate the impact of motor model aggregation, distribution equivalencing, and positive sequence phasor representation on the model results. Phase 2 composite load model requires additional research and development, which will be addressed by the proposed research project that includes: 1. Advance dynamic modeling of single-phase residential air-conditioners, including more detailed testing, modeling, and validation using both test and disturbance data 2. Developing load composition data sets for a wide variety of commercial buildings, including rules of association that map electrical end uses on load model components 3. Advance modeling of protection, controls and energy management systems used in variety of end use applications and buildings 4. Deploying disturbance data collection systems in distribution systems for dynamic model validation.

BPA is seeking to expand multifamily energy efficiency incentive offerings for new and existing construction. The goal is to identify and work out the technical challenges associated with integrating technologies into multifamily buildings. Part of the BPA new multifamily program development work requires building energy modeling comparing multifamily buildings built to Washington State code versus DOE Zero Energy Ready (DOEZER) standards. The project will assess the low-rise multifamily DOE ZER program against the 2015 Washington State Energy Code (WSEC) to coordinate the DOE ZER modeling for a target home; and model DOE ZER specifications using SEEM and compare the results to existing 2015 WSEC energy use analysis. Energy savings will be summarized and included in a report describing the analysis methodology, DOEZER and WSEC modeling specifications and the above code savings using one set of target measures.

Design guidelines have helped accelerate the deployment strategies for central hot water systems in multifamily buildings through the Pacific Northwest. This project will deliver two design guidelines for multifamily hot water recirculation loops and central heat pump hot water systems for future use by architects, engineers, contractors and developers by distilling the best practices and findings from recently completed research. Each guideline will present the operating principles, recommended design choices, and give examples where appropriate.

Perform NEEA Residential Building Stock Assessment (RBSA) Home data conversion to appliance control scripting via LabVIEW (http://www.ni.com/labview/) to provide an ongoing nonintrusive load monitoring (NILM) technology evaluation platform coupled with better appliance efficiency testing capability.

The new simplified energy enthalpy model (SEEM) project will both document and review the Regional Technical Forum (RTF) residential heating load calibration process. This independent review of the RTF residential heating load calibration process provides due diligence for the recent RTF reduction of residential measure savings, which may result in many existing measures becoming not cost-effective. Also, this review will ensure the new Planning tool (being developed under TIP318) doesnt just incorporate the RTF process, but instead incorporates the most appropriate calibration process. The RTF residential heating load calibration process was questioned at the an RTF meeting because it assumes the same heating load calibration for any heating zone. This project is needed for both existing and future residential measures and the Residential Sector fully supports this project.

Will proven strategies from residential behavioral programs provide savings in a small commercial application? Snohomish County Public Utility District's pilot will test behavior change in the commercial sector. A solution for this sector would be highly attractive to utilities with small commercial facility end users, which represent a significant untapped energy savings resource with unique barriers to participation in behavior change programs. The pilot project is a joint venture between Snohomish County Public Utility District, PECI, Lucid, and Starbucks. The pilot will be implemented at several Puget Sound area Starbucks stores and involves providing staff with frequent energy use data and between-store competitions. If successful, the approach could be scaled to similar facilities across the region. Starbucks has over 700 stores in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. Improvement on previous work: Very little work has been done in the small commercial arena and no pilots have been done with a large chain, such as Starbucks.

This project leverages deep-retrofit work completed by NEEA, Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, and provides BPA with retrofit packages for our Maintenance Head Quarter and Heavy Mobile Equipment Shop buildings. The two retrofit packages are projected to achieve 35 and 50% energy savings through upgrades to the building envelope, lighting and HVAC systems while helping BPA meet Executive Order (EO) 13693 which calls for all new federal buildings to be net zero ready by 2030 and requires that existing buildings reduce building energy intensity by 2.5% annually through 2025 while promoting deep retrofit packages for similar buildings in the region through net zero energy building guidelines. Information from this research will be applied to new retrofit packages for other commercial buildings within the BPA service territory.

This project will leverage the NEEA developed Sparktool, which is a high level decision making tool for deep energy retrofits. Research will demonstrate the tool in one building to assess its future application. This tool can be used by utilities to help their key accounts plan deep energy retrofits.