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Building and Remodeling a New Construction Program

Panel: Commercial Buildings: Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation

Authors:
Zachary Obert, Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corp.
Carter Dedolph, Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corp.

Abstract

In 2006 the Wisconsin Focus on Energy program found itself faced with the best kind of problem to have - more funding. Along with this increased funding came significant increases in energy savings goals. Focus on Energy had been running many successful programs for both business and residential customers since 2001, eliminating most low hanging fruit. As a result the program undertook an intensive planning process to identify those opportunities that would help meet the increased goals.

In Wisconsin, roughly 1/3 of the annual electric and natural gas load growth is due to commercial new construction. Previous research suggested that savings associated with new construction from a mature program could represent annual savings of 15 MW, 68,957 MWh, and 1,076,000 therms (Grabner et al. 2006). The need to add a new construction program to address this large untapped market became clear.

The launch of the new construction program required extensive planning to effectively integrate an existing multifamily new construction program and existing market channel based lighting and HVAC programs with a new program focused on commercial new construction. Ultimately the program design that emerged was one that works with independent energy design professionals to provide technical assistance as subcontractors to Focus on Energy.

In this paper, the authors will present several program case studies and discuss lessons learned in developing and managing a new construction program, including: criteria for prescriptive/system and custom/whole building tracks, the value of industry input and how to get it, and the challenges of merging and managing of parallel programs.

Paper

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