eTRM Heat Pump Baseline Systems Assessment

Heat Pump space conditioning systems are an important technology in the residential sector for both energy efficiency and decarbonization efforts. This project aims to address gaps in current EE Portfolio offerings for Residential Heat Pumps when retrofitting existing buildings with no existing space cooling systems or systems currently not addressed as baseline systems in measure packages. As the state increases electrification efforts, this lack of baseline systems that are ‘heating only’ is a barrier to incentivizing heat pump retrofits.   The California Electronic Technical Reference Manual (eTRM) is the official repository for deemed measures used by Program Administrators (PA) and Program Implementers under the purview of the CPUC. The eTRM has several individual measure packages (formerly workpapers) that address deemed savings for heat pump related technologies and smart thermostats that together form the technical basis for most of the State’s electrification efforts.   This project aims to evaluate how these various measure packages can be streamlined to address variety of baseline systems found in California existing homes and multifamily units. Some of the existing measure packages address situations when there is no cooling, but most of them assume existing air conditioning or heat pump systems, which may not accurately reflect retrofit opportunities. This project will review existing measure packages to identify where there are differences in baseline system assumptions, how those affect savings claims and how they may impact electrification efforts.   The project will also address how any proposed changes to the measure packages will be impacted by the new TSB metric when developing savings compared to a baseline with no cooling system installed.   The primary outcome of this project is a study outlining recommendations for updates to various measure packages related to heat pump space conditioning system upgrades   Key outcomes:  Documenting gaps in the current measure packages for residential HP space conditioning systems including: (a) Base case fuels (b) Base case systems (c)Measure case UEF  Energy and TSB savings impacts Recommendations for updates to existing measure packages. Expectation that eTRM governing bodies (Cal TF TAC and Cal TF Members) can consider for adoption.  Measure support for DAC/HTR customers.