The Council’s Regional Technical Forum conducts detailed analysis on energy efficiency and demand response opportunities for the region. To support implementation of this plan, the Council recommends the RTF undertake the following activities: improve valuation of flexibility and resiliency, increase rigor of measure cost analysis, improve measure load profiles, explore the energy efficiency and demand response interface, explore potential guidelines for incorporating equity in evaluation.
Improve Valuation of Flexibility and Resiliency
As described above and detailed in the cost-effectiveness methodology, the Council considered proxy values to highlight those energy efficiency measures that support the regional power system through grid flexibility or building resiliency, but ultimately did not develop a methodology for valuation. To improve future power planning, the RTF should investigate methods for quantifying the value of flexibility and resiliency for energy efficiency measures. To ensure symmetric treatment of energy efficiency with other demand side and supply side resources, the RTF should work with other regional experts in development of these values.
Increase Rigor of Measure Cost Analysis
Due to decreasing costs of developing and operating supply side resources, energy efficiency has more competition in terms of price than historically. To ensure that energy efficiency is treated equitably relative to these other resources, the region should invest more resources into improving its incremental cost analysis for energy efficiency measures. In particular, the RTF should allocate more resources to incremental cost analysis, working to increase the rigor of analysis and identify areas of uncertainty. This work will support improved quantification of energy efficiency in future power planning.
Improve Measure Load Profiles
As detailed above, understanding the timing of various energy efficiency measures is critical to appropriately quantifying energy efficiency benefits to the power system. The RTF should continue to improve its measure load and savings shape profile library for future analysis. Additionally, the RTF should invest resources in improving load profiles for temperature sensitive measures to ensure that the analysis is accurately representing the loads across the range of temperatures. This is particularly important for heat pump technologies, which often rely on less efficient electric resistance for back up when temperatures get low. As parts of the region work to decarbonize the system, and consider efforts to electrify end uses, it will be important to understand how various technologies impact the grid across a range of temperatures.
Explore the Energy Efficiency/Demand Response Interface
Some energy efficiency measures provide a dual benefit in that they also enable demand response or load management programs. Historically, the region has analyzed the costs and benefits of energy efficiency and demand response in their respective silos. Recognizing that flexibility is important to the power system, the RTF should take a more holistic approach to its assessment of measures that provide both energy efficiency and demand response. This includes understanding the impacts on energy and capacity savings, as well as costs and benefits, when considering energy efficiency and demand response opportunities in tandem.
Explore Potential Guidelines for Incorporating Equity in Evaluation
The RTF maintains Guidelines that outline consistent methods for evaluating energy efficiency measures. As described above, the region and Bonneville should continue to develop the tools and data necessary to analyze their individual service territories and understand equity gaps. After establishing equity metrics, the region and Bonneville should consider incorporating those metrics into its ongoing program evaluation to track progress against equity goals. To support this effort, the RTF should explore expanding its Guidelines to provide consistent regional guidance on how best to incorporate these practices into the established evaluation process. Throughout this exploration, the RTF should work regional entities and equity experts to leverage existing work and determine how it might best fit into the RTF analytical framework.