Utility Codes and Standards Programs: How Much Energy Do They Save?

Panel: Energy and Environmental Policy: Planning for Greater Impacts

Authors:
Allen Lee, The Cadmus Group
Hossein Haeri, The Cadmus Group
Ayat Osman, California Public Utilities Commission
Ken Keating, CPUC Master Evaluation Contractor Team
John Stoops, RLW Analytics, Inc.

Abstract

Adoption and implementation of energy-efficiency standards can be a very cost-effective way to increase the efficiency of new buildings and appliances. Government regulatory agencies are responsible for such codes and standards (C&S). For about two decades, the Energy Commission played the major role in California's efforts to upgrade such standards. In the latter half of the 1990's, California utilities began to actively participate researching, proposing, and promoting C&S as a way to reduce utility loads. Unlike resource acquisition programs, however, energy savings from utility C&S programs depend on a long chain of efforts, are complex to estimate, and may take years to occur. Nevertheless, their large impacts and cost-effectiveness justify utility efforts and incentives for utilities to engage in such efforts. The California Public Utilities Commission adopted a sophisticated protocol for quantifying utility C&S program impacts. It accounts for gross first-year energy savings from each code/standard, effects of market changes, what market penetration would have occurred if the standard had not been implemented, non-compliance, and what portion of savings can be attributed to the utility activities. This paper discusses the protocol and how it is being applied to evaluate impacts of California's current standards, findings from the evaluation to date, and potential changes to the protocol as a result of the current study. The authors believe both the approach of involving utilities in C&S development and the method discussed for evaluating their impacts will be essential elements required to scale up today's efficiency efforts to provide tomorrow's solutions.