Harvesting Mid-size Industrial BRO Savings

Current California Public Utilities Commission CPUC regulations limit the use of Normalized Metered Energy Consumption (NMEC) as a savings platform to three use cases: commercial buildings, industrial sites enrolled in a Strategic Energy Management (SEM) program, and industrial sites with “commercial-like” building loads approved on a case-by-case basis. For the latter use case, Site-Level NMEC allows large industrial customers with eligible building-like loads to pursue custom behavioral, retrocommissioning, and operational (BRO) projects and determine savings based on a normalization model. This project will establish the data to prove the robustness of a fourth use case: NMEC within industrial sites (with particular attention to smaller and midsize sites), including their process loads (not just building-like loads) outside of an SEM program. In California (CA) today, no program design exists to cost-effectively capture comprehensive savings from the Small and Medium Business (SMB) industrial customer segment. This project aims to prove the viability of NMEC in this setting, demonstrating it is a robust, cost-effective way to claim energy savings at midsize industrial sites. Midsize industrial customers have historically been underrepresented in energy efficiency programs because of a lack of available savings pathways under current CA regulations. The Project Team will recruit three midsize industrial customers within CA Investor-Owned Utility (IOU) territory to participate, conduct two-to-three-day onsite tune-ups (retro-commissioning events) with each site, and build each site an energy regression model to capture BRO savings opportunities identified during the tune-ups. Midsize industrial customers frequently lack the staffing to support engagement in a full, two-year SEM program nor do they have sufficiently high annual usage to cost-effectively justify submitting multiple projects through the custom platform. Through this project, the Project Team aims to show the viability of using the NMEC platform and measurement and verification (M&V) methodology to engage these sites in a way that meets their needs. This will streamline the program engagement requirement and the pathway to claim and earn incentives for energy savings. Focusing first on low- and no-cost BRO measures eliminates a common budgetary barrier for SMB industrial customers in CA. This approach yields customers quick cost savings and builds enthusiasm for additional energy projects. This project should open an important new avenue for all the electric IOUs in CA. IOUs will be able to claim more energy savings in the near-term through their industrial energy efficiency programs. Using regression modeling to capture multiple concurrent energy efficiency projects within an industrial site is a proven methodology. This also allows customers participating in DSM programs to move forward confidently with projects knowing they will earn incentives based on their site model.