Seattle City Light To Work On Project Focused On Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings
November 9, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 9, 2021
Washington State public power utility Seattle City Light will work with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the utility’s affordable housing provider partner, Community Roots Housing, to transform multifamily buildings in multifamily disadvantaged communities into grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs) with funding provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
Background
In October 2021, the DOE awarded $61 million from its Connected Communities funding opportunity announcement for 10 projects that will demonstrate how energy efficient and grid-interactive technologies can transform homes and workplaces into connected communities.
DOE notes that America’s 129 million buildings use 40% of the nation’s energy and 75% of its electricity, which contributes to 35% of the nation’s annual carbon emissions.
As renewable power joins the grid at a record pace and buildings become more energy efficient, those emissions fall, but the variability of renewable power requires grid operators to employ new approaches to manage balancing electricity demand with variable renewable supply, DOE said.
It said that connected communities of grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs) integrate with distributed energy resources and leverage the greatest advancements in digital communications and building science by using smart controls, sensors, and analytics to “talk” to the grid, one another, and almost everything else that plugs into them.
Through advanced analytics, the comfort and needs of building occupants can be optimized while supporting grid needs so the amount of energy buildings require during the costliest periods of peak energy demand is reduced. This lowers utility bills and reduces grid system costs, DOE said.
Seattle City Light Will Work With EPRI, Affordable Housing Partner
Seattle City Light will be working with EPRI and its affordable housing provider partner, Community Roots Housing, to select buildings for the Connected Community demonstration.
A variety of filters will be used in the selection process including building type, ownership, occupancy, housing-provider priorities, local grid and service characteristics, and others, noted Nathan MacDonald, senior public relations specialist at the Washington State public power utility.
“Internally we will be working with our Utility Technology, IT/OT, operations and planning staff to select an appropriate platform to use for DER interconnection and to determine use cases that we want to test. We will also be coordinating with our program delivery staff for customer outreach and to provide incentives for eligible efficiency upgrades.”
The first demonstration building will be operational by 2023, the second year of the grant. Performance data will be gathered and used in an energy model to determine the grid impact/benefit if the retrofit package were to be scaled across Seattle City Light’s service area. Based on these results, additional buildings will be selected for retrofit and final measurements and data will be collected to determine impact on the grid as well as the customer. “We will use the information collected and the evaluation results to develop future customer-facing utility programs as well as design of workforce development training, customer education and tech transfer,” MacDonald said.
“This will be a very holistic effort involving virtually all parts of the utility,” he said.
Next Steps
“Our very first next steps are to coordinate with EPRI and Community Roots Housing, the affordable housing provider associated with this proposal, to jointly determine the most appropriate buildings for the demonstration, both in terms of benefits to the occupants, the building owner and to the utility,” MacDonald noted. “The next level of benefit would be the learnings we can obtain for the buildings and selected technologies.”
Seattle City Light is also organizing internally to build a robust team to support this project in all the aspects, including customer support, cybersecurity, operations, planning, program design, data science and more. “A solid, engaged team is necessary for successfully completing this project and so far, everyone is excited to be part of this effort,” he noted.
The DOE grant has a five-year timeline, so the work will be completed by then. “However, we expect the first demonstration building to be operational by 2023, and further retrofits by 2025.”
In the early stages of the pandemic, Seattle City Light worked with Pacific Northwest National Labs and “embarked on an exercise we termed ‘Utility Next’ to develop 30% concept proposals in a wide range of topic areas to prepare for Federal and State stimulus money that could potentially be released to aid in economic recovery from the pandemic,” MacDonald noted.
These topics ranged from EV charging to large scale solar, mobile power and fleet and building electrification. Non-wires solutions and grid-interactive buildings was one of the topics included in this exercise and provided a solid base and head when the DOE Connected Communities grant was announced.
“We were able to build on the work and thought process accomplished during the Utility Next program to start developing proposals for the grant application. Even prior to this Utility Next effort City Light has been interested in and worked with regional leaders to explore load-flexibility and grid-interactivity to most efficiently utilize grid assets as buildings and transportation are electrified,” MacDonald said.
Seattle City Light participated as an active stakeholder and partner in five separate proposals that were submitted for the DOE Connected Communities grant. “All the proposals were great projects and we would have been happy for any of them to win. That said, we are delighted to be working with EPRI on this proposal that prioritizes benefiting low-income housing and reducing the energy burden for disadvantaged populations, while also helping the utility explore non-wires solutions that can keep the cost of power low for all of our customers.”
Details on the other connected communities projects that received DOE funding are available here.
Chelan PUD’s Steve Wright Recognized As Longtime Champion Of Energy Efficiency
November 9, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 9, 2021
Chelan County PUD General Manager Steve Wright was recently honored with the Charles H. Percy Award for Public Service by the Alliance to Save Energy, a national nonprofit. The award recognizes Wright’s 40-year career as a champion of energy efficiency.
“The Pacific Northwest has made a wholly disproportionate contribution to national and global progress on energy efficiency, and Steve Wright is a huge part of the reason, starting with his adept, unflagging and inspirational leadership at the Bonneville Power Administration,” said Ralph Cavanagh, the energy program co-director of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Wright served for 32 years at Bonneville Power Administration, including 12 years as administrator. During his tenure, he oversaw substantial increases in energy efficiency investments.
When Wright arrived as Washington State-based Chelan PUD’s general manager in 2013, he challenged the PUD’s energy efficiency team to double their energy savings goals. Over time, Chelan PUD met that challenge with a variety of customer-focused programs, including a partnership with local governments to help save money and save energy with facility upgrades, the PUD noted.
In April 2021, the PUD reported that Wright plans to step down from his position as general manager of Chelan PUD.
Wright currently serves as a member of the American Public Power Association’s Board of Directors and the board’s executive committee.
The PUD is headquartered in Wenatchee, Wash.
Ithaca, N.Y., Votes To Electrify And Decarbonize Building Stock
November 7, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 7, 2021
The City of Ithaca, N.Y., recently voted to electrify and decarbonize its building stock. The city’s contract with BlocPower, a New York-based climate tech startup focused on greening aging urban building, represents the first large-scale, city-wide electrification initiative in the U.S., and a major step forward in Ithaca’s plan to become carbon-neutral by 2030, BlocPower said.
Ithaca’s Common Council on Nov. 3 voted to empower Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick to negotiate a contract with BlocPower, which the city’s Planning and Economic Development Committee unanimously approved to manage the project after ratifying the results from its Energy Efficiency Retrofitting and Thermal Load Electrification RFP on October 20.
Building electrification is a key part of Ithaca’s Green New Deal.
BlocPower’s proposal estimates that the installation of air source heat pumps paired with supporting energy efficiency upgrades and other building improvements will cut Ithaca’s 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide by 40% and create 400 new green economy construction, technology and management jobs.
At the same time, it will make financing green energy upgrades affordable by providing low-cost loans to building owners, which they will pay back through the significant energy cost savings received, according to BlocPower.
Additional information about BlocPower is available here.
NREL Study Compares Storage, Energy Efficiency Building Stock Benefits
November 4, 2021
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
November 4, 2021
Pairing energy efficiency, rather than energy storage, with a renewable energy portfolio is more cost effective at achieving 100 percent renewable power for the nation’s building stock, according to a new study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
As more states, cities, and municipalities commit to reducing their environmental impact by shifting to 100 percent renewable energy sources, the dominant challenge will be the long-duration misalignment of supply and demand, Sammy Houssainy and William Livingood, the authors of the report, Optimal Strategies for a Cost-Effective and Reliable 100% Renewable Electrical Grid, argue.
While energy storage can address that misalignment, the report, published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, found that alternative and readily available solutions are more cost effective and should be considered first. “Minimizing long-duration storage is a key element in trying to achieve the target cost effectively,” Houssainy said in a statement.
Using a techno-economic analysis, the authors said they identified cost-optimal, region-dependent, supply-side, and demand-side strategies that reduce, and in some regions eliminate, the otherwise “substantial capacities and associated costs of long-duration energy storage.”
The supply-side strategies investigated included optimal mixes of renewable portfolios and oversized generation capacities. Demand-side strategies considered included building load flexibility and building energy efficiency investments.
The results, the author said, “reveal that building energy efficiency measures can reduce long-duration storage requirements at minimum total investment costs.”
Their analysis showed that a combination of optimally mixed renewable resources, oversized generation capacities, and building energy efficiency investments can eliminate the need for long-duration energy storage in some U.S. regions, the authors said. “This is particularly important given that most long-duration storage technologies are either geologically constrained or still underdeveloped,” they wrote.
The study analyzed prototype building models in climate zones represented by five cities – Tampa, Fla.; El Paso, Texas; New York, Denver, and International Falls, Minn. – and found that the optimum renewable mix generally favors higher wind power allocations in colder climates and higher solar photovoltaic allocations in hotter climates.
For example, the authors said, Tampa would generate all of its electricity from solar panels, while International Falls would receive 100 percent from wind turbines in order to have the least reliance on energy storage.
The report also modeled oversizing renewable generation sources as a means of reducing energy storage needs and found that it can reduce energy storage requirements by ensuring that loads are met during times of otherwise inadequate supply.
Even though oversizing may require curtailing excess power during periods of abundant supply, the authors said oversizing “can have substantial impacts on storage capacities, and in some cases potentially eliminating the need for storage.”
“Our results reveal that cost-optimal renewable production factor ranges from 1.4 to 3.2, and optimal energy efficiency penetrations range from 52% to 68% savings, depending on the climate region,” they wrote. “Therefore, the benefits of excess generation capacities and building energy efficiency measures are outweighed by their incremental investments.”
70 Public Power Utilities Earn Smart Energy Provider Designation
October 26, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
October 26, 2021
Seventy public power utilities have earned a Smart Energy Provider (SEP) designation from the American Public Power Association. The designations were presented on October 26 during APPA’s Customer Connections Conference in Scottsdale, Ariz.
SEP designees are recognized for demonstrating commitment to and proficiency in energy efficiency, distributed generation, and environmental initiatives that support a goal of providing low-cost, quality, safe, and reliable electric service.
In total, 97 public power utilities nation-wide hold the Smart Energy Provider designation.
The SEP designation, which lasts for two years (December 1, 2021 to November 30, 2023) recognizes public power utilities for demonstrating leading practices in four key disciplines: smart energy program structure; energy efficiency and distributed energy programs; environmental and sustainability initiatives; and the customer experience. This is the third year APPA has offered the SEP designation.
In an episode of the Public Power Now podcast, Liz Jambor, manager of data analytics and business intelligence at Austin Energy in Texas, discussed the SEP Program and her work as chair of the SEP review panel. To listen to the December 2020 episode, click here.
The full list of SEP designees is available here.
NREL Helps GSA Make Its Buildings More Grid Interactive And Efficient
August 4, 2021
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
August 4, 2021
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has created a plan to help the General Services Administration (GSA) transition its huge real estate portfolio to a more grid interactive and efficient operation.
The GSA, which procures and manages office space for federal buildings, has an annual budget of a nearly $21 billion. The agency owns and leases over 376.9 million square feet of space in 9,600 buildings in more than 2,200 communities nationwide.
The Blueprint for Integrating Grid-Interactive Efficient Building Technologies into U.S. General Services Administration Performance Contracts developed by a team of NREL researchers provides the GSA with a guide to using federal energy performance contracting to transform GSA properties into grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs) that can interact with the electric grid, using smart technologies to reduce, shed, shift, modulate, or generate electricity load as needed.
A grid-interactive efficient building is able to optimize its energy use in a continuous and integrated way for demand flexibility, grid services, occupant needs and preferences, cost reductions, and increased resilience, NREL says.
The NREL blueprint seeks to expand the GSA’s deployment of its National Deep Energy Retrofit program, by incorporating demand flexibility and grid integration strategies that can lead to additional energy and cost savings, increased resilience, and leading to deeper greenhouse gas reductions.
The blueprint offers guidance in using energy performance contracts, such as energy savings performance contracts and utility energy service contracts that provide a means of financing projects for government customers who do not benefit from the energy efficiency and renewable energy tax incentives available to private sector customers. Instead, some or all of the energy upgrades are paid for by contractors or the utility, with the costs recouped through energy savings over the life of the project.
The GSA is putting performance contracting to work implementing GEB at multiple sites. For instance, the agency won multiple Department of Energy grants to help co-fund solar-plus-battery-storage projects at six Land Port of Entry facilities in Texas and New Mexico, and at four courthouses and a parking garage in Oklahoma. Through its Green Proving Ground program, GSA is also preparing to test the effectiveness of various grid-interactive efficient buildings technologies at other facilities in its portfolio.
Glendale Water & Power signs contract tied to C&I energy efficiency program
July 6, 2021
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
July 6, 2021
Glendale Water & Power (GWP) has signed a contract with Lime Energy for energy efficiency that aims to support the California public power utility’s clean energy transformation.
Under the $18 million, seven-year contract, Lime Energy will deliver 36,500 megawatt hours (MWh) in energy savings by providing a combination of targeted energy efficiency technologies, upgrades, and services for small and large businesses in Glendale.
GWP projects it will have 964,352 MWh of retail energy sales in its 2021-2022 fiscal year, rising to 940,282 MWh in fiscal year 2030-2031.
The contract institutes a pay-for-performance program that is designed to provide energy efficiency upgrades to commercial and industrial (C&I) businesses in the utility’s service territory. The program will use the direct install energy efficiency program model, which is designed as a turn-key process for C&I customers.
“We are committed to accelerating and ramping up our sustainability efforts by providing a turnkey upgrade program for our commercial and industrial business customers,” John Takhtalian, interim general manager of Glendale Water & Power, said in a statement. “This program helps our customers meet their energy efficiency goals and helps GWP take more steps toward a clean energy future.”
Among the services Lime Energy, subsidiary of Willdan Group, will provide GWP are marketing, sales, engineering, project implementation, and customer support for a range of energy efficiency practices and technologies. The technologies covered under the program include lighting, refrigeration, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC).
The contract with Lime Energy is not GWP’s first energy efficiency program. “GWP has a long history of providing energy efficiency programs for our customers,” Atineh Haroutunian, the utility’s public benefits marketing manager, said via email. GWP has invested over $50 million in multiple energy efficiency programs, for both residential and business customers, since 2000, she said.
GWP has provided most, if not all, of those energy efficiency programs through outside contractors. “Using outside contractors is the most cost-effective and efficient why to provide these kinds of services to our customers,” Haroutunian said. “It allows us to provide the most variety in program offerings and gives our customers access to more cutting edge energy efficiency products and services.”
The program with Lime Energy was developed in response to City Council recommendations to develop clean energy programs as part of the utility’s plan to repower its Grayson power plant.
GWP is repowering the Grayson plant with a combination of renewable energy resources, energy storage and a limited amount of thermal generation. The plan includes a 75 MW, 300 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery energy storage system, as much as 50 MW of distributed energy resources that include solar photovoltaic systems, energy efficiency and demand response programs, and 93 MW of thermal generation from up to five internal combustion engines.
The Lime Energy program is part of GWP’s Clean Energy Program suite. Another element of the utility’s Clean Energy Program was its launch in April of its Peak Savings demand response program for residential and commercial customers. The program provides incentives for reducing demand on the electric grid on days when demand is highest and is being run by Franklin Energy.
California PUC realigns energy efficiency to increase equity and long-term focus
June 2, 2021
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
June 2, 2021
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), in a late May decision, reformed its approach to energy efficiency programs to better align them with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction, support for customer equity, and long-term grid stability.
The decision, Docket #: R.13-11-005, changes how the goals for energy efficiency programs in the state are set and evaluated and the processes for setting those metrics.
The CPUC released the proposed decision in April.
The decision calls for a shift in energy efficiency goals to long-term GHG reductions and grid benefits and away from setting goals based on savings of kilowatt-hours, kilowatts, and therms. The new “total system benefit” metric, expressed in dollar value, takes lifecycle energy, capacity into account to better target “high value” load reduction and “longer-duration energy savings while being fuel agnostic,” according to the decision.
The decision also changes the way energy efficiency programs are measured, shifting cost effectiveness evaluations away from an assessment of energy efficiency portfolio-wide economic benefit to an approach that segments the portfolio into categories and evaluates each category based on the primary purpose of the program. The new method is aimed at supporting the continuation of programs that “serve important functions but whose benefits are not appropriately captured by cost effectiveness ratios.”
In terms of process, the decision replaces the 10-year business plan and yearly utility filings with the CPUC with a 4-year application that includes a strategic planning component.
The decision calls for Investor-owned utilities to file new energy efficiency program applications in February 2022 that will take effect by January 2024.
The CPUC said that this summer it would continue to work to improve energy efficiency programs through the consideration of new energy efficiency goals and the addition of details to the changes implemented in the new decision.
“This decision helps to continue California’s leadership in energy efficiency by reducing the conflict between cost-effectiveness and other equally or more important policy objectives that address equity and provide market support for our energy efficiency programs,” Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma said in a statement. “It further maximizes energy efficiency measures for longer duration greenhouse gas reductions in support of our integrated resource plan and in delivering grid benefits.”
Report lays out DOE’s vision for grid-interactive efficient buildings
May 20, 2021
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
May 20, 2021
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Brattle Group have released a report laying out a path to accomplish the Department of Energy’s (DOE) goal of tripling the energy efficiency of buildings by 2030.
A National Roadmap for Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings defines technology attributes, integration considerations, and barriers to achieving the full potential, adoption and deployment of grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs).
“Most of our buildings stand to benefit enormously from smart, connected technologies,” Kelly Speakes-Backman, acting assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the DOE, said in a statement. “Grid-interactive efficient buildings are designed to avoid the high costs and disruptions associated with peak demand and grid stress. Through clean, on-site power generation and cutting-edge efficiency measures, we can massively reduce the carbon footprint of the buildings sector.”
Combining smart technologies and distributed energy resources with energy efficient buildings, grid-interactive efficient buildings can provide comfort and convenience for building occupants, sell services to the power grid, and cut costs and pollution, the report’s authors said.
The report identifies grid-interactive building technologies such as efficient lighting and appliances that reduce electricity demand, load shedding applications that allow buildings to reduce demand during peak periods, load shifting software, batteries or other devices that allow a building to maintain grid frequency or to control voltage, and power generating sources such as rooftop solar panels.
The report found that over the next two decades, grid-interactive efficient buildings could deliver between $100 and $200 billion in savings to the U.S. power system and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 80 million tons per year by 2030, or 6 percent of total power sector CO2 emissions.
The DOE has scheduled a webinar on the Grid-interactive efficient building roadmap for May 27. News and events about the GEB initiative is available here.
The General Services Administration recently published a complementary blueprint for practical guidance and tools to integrate GEB technologies into federal energy savings performance contracts and has committed to 100 percent renewable energy for all federal buildings by 2025.
DEED grant enables Burlington Electric to expand C&I energy efficiency program
April 10, 2021
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
April 10, 2021
The Burlington Electric Department (BED) in Vermont has used a Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Developments (DEED) grant from the American Public Power Association to upgrade and expand its engagement with local businesses in reducing their energy consumption.
Burlington Electric, working with Burlington 2030 District, is seeking to reduce building energy consumption in Burlington’s commercial sector through the development and implementation of Property Energy Plans (PEP).
The DEED grant funding supported Burlington Electric’s efforts to increase its outreach to commercial property owners in Burlington regarding the benefits of Property Energy Plans and to follow up with potential participants, as well as develop best practices for commercial property owners to maximize the benefits of receiving a customized PEP. The project allowed Burlington Electric to recruit new commercial property owners to participate in the PEP process and to carry out energy benchmarking trainings, as well as a local business breakfast educational event.
The DEED grant project ran from Jan. 1, 2019 and was completed Jan. 15, 2021. The original DEED grant proposal was budgeted at $64,250. Final funding for the project was $49,400.
In 2014, Burlington Electric played a key role in making the city of Burlington the first city in the country to source 100 percent of its energy from renewable generation. Since then, the utility has committed to making Burlington a net zero energy city by reducing and eventually eliminating fossil fuel usage across the electric, thermal and ground transportation sectors by electrifying, managing demand, realizing efficiency gains, and expanding local renewable generation.
Commercial and industrial customers are key to Burlington Electric’s emissions reduction strategy. Although C&I customers only account for 18 percent of the utility’s total customers, they are responsible for 75 percent of annual kilowatt hour sales. Burlington Electric provides electric service to 16,876 residential customers and 3,885 C&I customers.
Burlington Electric says engaging commercial property owners with complimentary Property Energy Plans and recruiting them to participate in and commit to the Burlington 2030 District goal of reducing building energy consumption 50 percent by 2030 is a key part of reaching its sustainability goals. Burlington Electric said the DEED grant enabled it to partner with the Burlington 2030 District initiative to help achieve those goals.
The “2030 District” designation is overseen by Architecture 2030. They are private-public partnerships in designated urban areas across North America committed to reducing energy use, water use, and transport emissions. The Burlington 2030 District is one of 23 such designations across the United States and Canada.
Burlington Electric says the Burlington 2030 District provides a platform to connect with the commercial sector. So far, over 9.5 million square feet of building space is participating in the Burlington 2030 District, representing about 20 percent of the city’s total gross square footage.
The DEED grant allowed Burlington Electric and the Burlington 2030 District team to develop, complete and distribute Property Energy Plans, including energy benchmarking reports, for 29 buildings, exceeding the utility’s original goal of developing 25 PEPs and exceeding the utility’s original goal of increasing the number of buildings receiving complimentary energy benchmarking by 300%.
Burlington Electric also reported it was able to hone and develop its PEP tool and template, resulting in a more robust and detailed roadmap for its customers and for Burlington 2030 District members. The utility said it learned via the updated energy benchmark that one of its commercial customers was able to reduce their energy consumption by 16 percent since first joining the 2030 District in 2017.
Burlington Electric has made its updated PEP template available for use by other utilities.
In addition, since the original DEED grant proposal was submitted, Burlington Electric said 21 new commercial property owners have committed to the Burlington 2030 District performance goals, increasing committed property owner membership to 35 from 14, a 150 percent gain.
The DEED grant also enabled Burlington Electric to hold two benchmark training sessions, attended by about 85 people, as well as an education event on the benefits of membership in the Burlington 2030 District program.
While Burlington Electric reported that the DEED grant project was “very successful” and “met or exceeded” its objectives, the utility said the COVID-19 pandemic has made it more challenging to recruit new commercial property owners to join the Burlington 2030 District. The pandemic has also made it more difficult to encourage commercial property owners to take action on energy reduction recommendations in their PEPs when they are facing financial hardship due to COVID-19, the utility said.
Overall, the DEED grant enabled the Burlington Electric, in partnership with the Burlington 2030 District initiative, to increase its impact across the city and work towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the utility said in its final DEED report.
Looking forward, Burlington Electric said it plans to continue to encourage its C&I customers to engage in PEP follow-up meetings and to find ways to engage larger tenants and multi-unit rental buildings to embrace energy efficiency measures. The utility also said it aims to carry out energy benchmarking across the entire Burlington 2030 District property owner/manager building portfolio.