Research Tracker

The goal of the project is to provide background information to support listing mogul based lighting in the Designlights Consortium Qualified Product List to support cost-effective LED retrofits. This phase of the study will identify and document case studies.

Market characterization and testing of mogul based LED replacement lamps and systems. Goal: background information to support listing in the Designlights Consortium Qualified Product List, to support cost-effective LED retrofits (if the data supports this). Research questions include: Market characterization: what mogul based sockets are in place, by application type and wattage? National scope, for input to DLC process. Market survey: What mogul based LED replacement lamps and kits are available? Literature survey and pilot test: Do they work?

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.

The goal of this project is similar to the Unit Energy Savings (Deemed) Measure Development study with a focus on Circulatory Pumps across sectors. The study will fund the development of the Regional Technical Forum (RTF) workbook to present data to achieve RTF UES Planning Measures for Circulatory Pumps. This project will include data collection and analyses and does not involve field or primary research.

The goal of this proposed effort is to conduct a multi-year testing and demonstration of all types of grid- and renewables-supporting services by a utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) at NRELs National Wind Technology Center (NWTC). This work will be conducted as a collaborative effort involving NREL and Powin Energy, the goal of which is to demonstrate via long-term testing the capabilities of BESS technologies to address operational and reliability challenges of integrating large amounts of variable renewable generation into the power system that are caused by resource variability, temporal mismatch between generation and demand, and forecast uncertainty.

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 objective of the research is to test the energy performance and demand reduction capabilities of phase change material (PCM) in conditioned buildings at a USAR site. PCM is a substance used to increase the thermal mass of a building due to its ability to melt and solidify at certain temperatures, providing the capability to store and release large amounts of thermal energy. PCM works in conjunction with traditional insulation to decrease heat gain (or loss) by storing and releasing heat to the conditioned space at different times of the day

The Pacific Northwest (PNW) Smart Grid project is a five-year demonstration led by Battelle and partners including BPA, 11 utilities, two universities, and five vendors. The cost is $178 million ($89 million private, $89 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funded). The project will include 60,000 metered customers in five states. The project aims to substantially increase smart grid asset installation in the region by purchasing and installing smart grid technology. The project goals are to facilitate integration of wind and other renewables, quantify costs and benefits, develop two-way communication protocol, and advance interoperability standards.

The proposal will design, develop, and pilot an Intelligent Connected aggregator platform beginning with selected Residential Connected Smart Thermostats. The objective will be to develop and test a connected device platform that can provide a PNW regional infrastructure to simultaneously manage smart thermostats and other connected devices.

This project proposes to research an issue which was identified during the current reverse cycle chiller (RCC) study regarding distributed heat loss. This project builds on an existing BPA funded multifamily heat pump reverse cycle chiller project, TIP 140. The results of this project have been good. This is a technology which has potential for multifamily and other applications in the Pacific Northwest. The TIP 140 project results identified that hot water recirculation systems can reduce efficiency by 30-40%. Additional work needs to be done to quantify the energy losses associated with typical hot water distribution systems. This research project contains a comprehensive approach to understanding and reducing energy losses in hot water recirculation systems. There are three work areas. The primary area is a pilot study to set up three different hot water distribution systems and understand the impact these three different approaches will have on the overall system efficiency. The second area is to meter actual heat loss from recirculation systems in two to three existing midrise multifamily buildings to better characterize the baseline. The third area is to directly measure performance of inverter-driven heat pump water heaters in the field with and without the impact of recirculation loops.

This demonstration project will test the viability of replacing an RTU with Variable Capacity Heat Pump, Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV) and a Dedicated Outside Air Source technologies. This project supports NEEA's HRV proof of concept project, by supporting a cold-climate installation at a BPA utility's building estimated to save 70% of the RTU energy use. Demonstration will inform future streamlined custom measures.

Via a controlled demonstration, this project will provide economic justification and a plan for a market transformation effort to cause all new water heaters sold in the Pacific North West to be sold with the CEA-2045 modular communication interface and to include demand responsive behavior built into the electronic controls so the water heater will be DR ready. Update: This project is progressing. Recently, utility grants were awarded to fund locations for installations later this year.

In response to increased use of adaptive, exterior lighting products, and their potential for substantial energy savings, utilities are interested in creating a deemed incentive program focused on this technology. A simplified method is necessary to easily calculate expected energy savings and associated incentives. Energy savings for adaptive luminaires is clearly tied to occupancy patterns. To support a deemed incentive program, standardized occupancy profiles for a variety of nine key non-residential exterior spaces will be developed. These profiles may be used to easily calculate expected energy savings and associated incentives for a proposed adaptive exterior lighting project. Questions to address include: What is the occupancy/vacancy pattern for the nine building types? How does the rate vary across the different types of buildings? What are the variables that impact the occupancy/vacancy?

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.

BPA secondary research on Single-Package, Vertical Heat Pumps (SPVHP) supports the energy savings potential, and non-energy benefits, such as better indoor air quality for modular school buildings. The project will fund the installation of up to 5 SPVHPs. Project activities include pre and post metering; units would be installed over the summer to be ready for testing in the new school year. Following the analyses of the metered data, the decision will be made whether to expand the field test to other locations.

This project proposes to design, pilot, and verify air-source, CO2 heat pump water heaters for domestic water heating in small-scale multifamily buildings. A second, significant goal of the project is to enable technology transfer.

BPA is working with NEEA to install indoor temperature loggers in 200 single family homes in the upcoming Residential Building Stock Assessments (RBSA) to collect indoor air temperature (IAT) data from (RBSA) homes during the next study period. This IAT data is needed to help establish required baselines for the Smart Thermostat measure initiatives. Installations will start in July 2016 and run through July 2017. Loggers will be collected after 9 months of data collection and analyses will begin. Interim results will be available starting September 2017.

Smart Residential Thermostats Pilot with Franklin PUD. In partnership with Franklin PUD, BPA is conducting a Nest Learning ThermostatTM field pilot study. One hundred seventy three (173) thermostats were installed with the goal of evaluating the thermostats ability to control Residential Air Source Heat Pump operation and realize electricity savings through a pre/post utility billing regressions analysis study. Metering devices were installed in 9 homes to better understand how the Nest Thermostats control the heat pump systems and how people are interacting with these devices. Study results will be available mid year 2016.

To reduce energy use in homes that are becoming tighter, mechanical ventilation is added to maintain Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). Smart ventilation technologies are being developed to minimize the energy impact of mechanical ventilation while simultaneously maintaining IAQ. This project will demonstrate the energy savings associated with a smart ventilation technology through a combination of field testing and simulations. The target is to get close to heat recovery ventilation (HRV) performance at much lower cost and complexity; and greater reliability through smart control of simple exhaust (or supply) fans. The project will also develop recommendations for utility programs, other energy efficiency programs and for codes/standards on how to calculate credits for smart ventilation systems.

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 data gathering and analysis project will develop reliable estimates of energy savings for Networked Lighting Controls (NLC) project and on a larger scale, accelerate the deployment and market adoption of NLC in Commercial Buildings. Advanced Lighting Controls has significant potential to accelerate LED lighting adoption. In a recent study by LBNL, multiple lighting control strategies saved an average of 38% of energy savings. However, market adoption on NLC/Advance Lighting Controls is estimated to be less then 1%. This project is designed to help BPA determine appropriate program designs, incentives, training and Qualified Products to increase deployment of NLC. The project will request data from several utilities including BPA about energy savings achieved in recent projects. BPA is partnering with Efficiency Forward (formerly DLC) to complete this project.

The goal of this project is to further understanding of the energy saving potential of ducted minisplit heat pumps (DMS) compared to electric resistance heat in the side by side PNNL Lab Homes. This project will provide an experimental plan to evaluate the performance of ducted mini-splits. PNNL will review the current lab and field testing on ducted minisplits to determine the most relevant test case scenarios for this technology and develop an experimental plan to test ducted minisplits in the PNNL Lab Homes, using electric resistance heat and a heat pump as the two baseline cases. As part of the plan, PNNL will identify data needed to develop an EnergyPlus model for ducted minisplits in the Lab Homes which would allow for extrapolation of the energy savings of this technology to other climates or other buildings. If needed, In a second phase of the project, PNNL will implement the experimental plan in the Lab Homes.

The objective of the research is to test the energy performance and demand reduction capabilities of the high-efficiency cellular shading devices and associated automated control strategies in the PNNL matched pair of laboratory homes. Tests outcomes will measure the cost-effective materials for existing homes. examine persistence of savings through Automated Operation of Dynamic Systems, and examine the benefits to of coordinating Cellular Shades with HVAC Demand-Response Events.

The objective of the research is to test the energy performance and demand reduction capabilities of the high-efficiency cellular shading devices and associated automated control strategies in the PNNL matched pair of laboratory homes. BPA funded the final report for phase 1 of this study. Completion of the final report supported the TIP 392 project.

The research goals of the project will to identify what types of systems would provide the best baseline data for the Pacific NW (PNW). Utilizing a new portable metering system that can measure temperatures, pressures, true power, heat load, and Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) of Commercial Refrigeration, units will be installed at four different grocery stores. Sites will be selected that would be open to a large scale energy conservation project that modifies the refrigeration system. The portable Climacheck systems will remain in place a full year after the project to study the effect on the new system and quantify energy savings. After 1 year of post project data collection, the Climacheck systems may be moved around more frequently to collect shorter-term period (three, six, or nine month) data on additional sites and system types.

This project is based on initial research done under TIP 50 and 51. The fraction of power electronic loads is expected to increase over the next decade. The project will evaluate the impact of power electronic loads on power system stability, including dynamic voltage stability, damping of power oscillations, and frequency response. The project will look at a wide number of power electronic loads, such as VFDs, consumer electronics, and electric vehicle charges. The project will simulate, test, and evaluate various designs that make electronic loads friendly to the power grid. This project is coordinated with a larger nationwide US Department of Energy (DOE) Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS) project.

The proposed project investigates using highly controllable resources, such as energy storage and demand response, located in BPA served distribution networks with the goal of providing technical and economic benefits to BPA such as: 1. Congestion management 2. Equipment upgrade deferrals 3. Increased system reliability, and 4. Assistance in developing a strategy to manage increasing amounts of distributed generation. This project is being pursued due to a timely confluence of several projects already under way. The University of Washington (UW) Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) funded research project, Energy Positioning: Control and Economics, is developing techniques to optimize use of the energy storage (ES) and demand response (DR) assets to support transmission network operations and determine the economic value of such optimization. The Snohomish PUD is making an investment in ES and DR assets supported by Washington State, which will be managed by an advanced control and optimization system. These assets will provide a valuable real-world proving ground for the UW research and technology to be developed in this project.

Variable Capacity Heat Pump Test Protocol for Northern Climates. BPA is collaborating with 7 Canadian utilities and Natural Resources Canada, with the assistance of the Canadian Standards Association, and US industry partners Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), NEEA and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) to develop a test protocol standard for Variable Capacity Heat Pumps (VCHP) designed for Cold Climates. This test protocol means BPA will be able to confidently predict the performance of new VCHP market entrant without expensive field testing. BPA has engaged EPRI to participate in the international proceedings and to test and verify the final protocol recommendation before formal adoption by BPA.

The Field Study will have two phases of work. Phase 1 is determining the energy savings at eight installed sites. Phase 2 will estimate the annual savings for each site, determine the incremental savings of this technology compared to two baselines, and provide a workbook for an Regional Technical Forum (RTF) UES (deemed) measure if the field, Campbell Creek, and lab studies show it is cost-effective and saves energy. Questions to address include: How do we test and measure this technology? Determine an M&V plan with the region. Evaluate the field sites; are there energy savings? Could this be a cost effective measure? Should BPA pursue an RTF UES (deemed measure) for this technology?

BPA has not provided any variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system incentives because of challenges estimating and verifying energy savings. This project will leverage BPAs AirNW Trade Ally network to identify and document VRF installations so that billing analysis can be done to determine energy savings. Activities include: billing analyses on 10 sites where the VRF system installation was the only change affecting electricity use.

Ecotope, in partnership with Vulcan Real Estate and Seattle City Light proposes to design, pilot and verify a heat pump water heating system for large multifamily buildings using the building sewage as a heat source. The waste water heat pump (WWHP) will recover waste heat streams from the building and heat water for domestic use at extremely high performance levels. The system will be built in a large multifamily building with approximately 400 apartment units. The project team will conduct a feasibility study of the system concept and a numerical model to predict the best equipment sizing and control algorithms. With the feasibility demonstrated the team will move on to full system design in a multifamily building. The team will write a measurement plan to monitor the energy use of the system. The team will commission the system, optimize its operation and prepare a set of design guidelines to be used throughout the engineering community.

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.