2. Agenda
• The need to couple outreach
with energy studies
• Using outreach to implement
low hanging fruit
• Energy studies for deep saving
retrofits
• How to scale implementation of
deep saving retrofits
• Case studies
3. The Need to Go Deeper
• Year-over-year utility energy efficiency goals
• Low hanging fruit largely implemented
• Success implementing deep saving retrofits by coupling
outreach with in-depth energy studies
Outreach
Program
Energy
Study
Program
Deep
Savings
4. Program Outreach Strategy
Targeted paths
Direct
customers
Market partnerships
Program
marketing
State/Local
Federal
Design
engineers
Trade
orgs
Public
agencies
Vendors Finance
5. Keys to a Successful Outreach Program
• Find the path in – engage with energy champions.
• Relationship development
• Technical support, best practices, measure discovery
• Identify barriers and connect the dots
6. Outreaching the Limits
• Breadth of end users, finite depth of technical support
• Low hanging fruit . . . mostly identified and implemented
• The need for deep savings retrofits
7. Target End Use for Deep Savings
• HVAC is the #2 end use for commercial facilities.
• Target optimized control of HVAC.
Based on Center for Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS ) data
9. Coupling Outreach with Energy Studies
• Outreach identifies potential; energy studies pursue deep
savings.
• Tailor energy study type to customer needs.
– Timeline, energy goals, available capital, investment criteria
10. Case Study #1: NYSERDA FlexTech
• Over 80% of controls measures implemented by year 4
11. Case Study #2: PSNH C&I Retrofit Program
• Turn off space heating pumps in
summer
• Set back temperatures in
unoccupied spaces
• Optimize supply air temperature
reset
• Install demand control
ventilation
• Shut down RTUs on nights and
weekends
Predicted savings: 29%
Realized savings: 36%
• Multi-tenant, three-story, 66,000 ft2 commercial facility in NH
12. Summary
• Program outreach is effective at implementing low hanging
fruit and identifying the potential for deeper savings.
• Next tier of savings is deep savings retrofits.
• Optimized control of HVAC is the target for commercial
facilities.
• Coupling outreach with an energy study program is the key to
identifying, quantifying, and implementing deep savings
retrofits.
14. For more information - www.aesp.org
Save the Dates
AESP’s Summer Conference
San Francisco, CA
AESP’s National Conference
Orlando, FL
August 4–6, 2014
February 9–12, 2015
Editor's Notes
So I’m the last speaker in the last session on the last day, so considering the cards are stacked against me, so I feel the need to start with an anecdote to set the stage for this presentation. I’m an avid bass fisherman (catch and release, I don’t keep em), and last summer, I was fishing a lake in Northern NH with my brother-in-law. We were out there for a couple hours on his boat, catching small ones here and there but nothing much of size. To give some perspective, in New England a 5 lb. bass is considered rare and precious, but you can catch 1 lb. bass all day. So I casted into a weedy area right where the wind broke and it was calm waters, and boom, something monstrous hits my line. I was able to bring it to the boat, so close to the boat that it smacked up against the side of the boat, did a couple a flips in the air, and off it went. What looked like Moby Dick had just broken line. If I had done my due diligence, I would have known to put stronger line on my reel. It was the 5 lb. bass that I never got a second shot at catching for the rest of that summer. Now in this example the 1 lb bass are low hanging fruit, as I said it was easy catching them all day. The 5 lb bass is the deep saving retrofit that requires the next level of due diligence to catch.The discussion is going to focus on scaling the implementation of deep saving retrofits through successfully coupling outreach with an in-depth energy study program. ERS is currently an outreach contractor NYSERDA and Public Service of New Hampshire, and we provide energy auditing services for most of the utilities in the Northeast, including New York. We’ve observed inherent benefits to both programs related to providing solutions to end users and funneling them through incentive programs. However, there are limitations to both programs and we’ve seen the greatest success in coupling outreach with energy study programs in an intelligent way to identify and implement deep saving retrofits that go beyond the low hanging fruit.
So what’s the challenge and why we do need to go deeper. Well, in the large commercial space, which is the focus of this presentation, we’re at a point where most of the low hanging fruit is already implemented, but the year-over-year energy goals persist and in many cases, get more aggressive. Outreach offers the breadth of user engagement but lacks the depth of technical assistance needed to identify deep saving retrofits. Energy studies are tools used to identify deep saving retrofits, but the programs lack the ability to engage the target audience on a mass scale. The equation is quite simple, and it works.
We will first start with the keys to targeting, engaging, and identifying the potential for deep saving retrofits through an Outreach campaign.Discuss NYSERDA program success.Direct customer outreach: end users who have participated in the incentive program in the past, contact the outreach team, or are so large that they are classified as a key account. Depending on our client, we may have access to end user account information, but that is not always the case.Market partnerships: How do we engage the large pool of customers that don’t fall into this category? Well, we strategically expand our outreach team through market partnerships. These entities have mutual goals and our value proposition to each of them is different. For vendors, we support them by buying down the cost of their projects and handle all the administrative paperwork of the application. For trade organizations, we support regional growth by promoting fail safe investments that make companies more sustainable. Program marketing: Includes newsletters, case studies, fact sheets, holding webinars, and attending events.
So finding the energy champion, and hopefully they are also the decision maker, and developing that relationship over time is essential. But the relationship needs to go beyond hand-holding and customer relations. The Outreach staff need to be technically oriented to promote projects, funnel the low hanging fruit through the incentive program, and identify the potential for deep saving retrofits. They also need to understand the facility so they can identify barriers and connect the dots between energy efficiency and the end user’s investment criteria.
Low hanging fruit typically doesn’t need long term data logging and complex energy modeling to determine project feasibility. In fact, as technical outreach contractors, we can sell these projects with limited baseline data, staff interviews, and a brief walkthrough of the facility. However, we’re limited in that we have a finite number of staff on the outreach team and can’t spend too much time on one single customer. If we analyzed trend data, deployed data loggers, and created complex energy models for every customer in our territory, we would only touch a sliver of the potential. However, the outreach team can identify the potential for deep saving retrofit opportunities to funnel into an in-depth energy study program.
Where are these deep savings located in commercial facilities? Through field observation and verified by the commercial building energy consumption survey, HVAC accounts for the second largest end use in a commercial facility. As lighting can be characterized by low hanging fruit, and one-for-one replacements of HVAC equipment is identifiable with limited data, the next level of opportunity lies in optimized control of HVAC systems.In the open plenary, Roland described the situation very well in that we spend up to millions of dollars on buildings but these buildings lack the proper controls to operate efficiently. This is where we see the next level of opportunity.
This slide shows control systems for HVAC equipment, both on the air-side and water-side, and highlights the focus of investigation for deep saving retrofits. To identify such opportunities, analyzing metered data from data loggers or the EMS, and characterizing the operation of the existing systems is the foundation to optimizing control of HVAC equipment.
We’ve used outreach as a launching off point to customizing the scope of energy studies in order to meet the facility’s goals. Does the energy study target a piece of equipment, specific areas of the HVAC system, the HVAC system as a whole? Factoring in the customer’s available budget, timeline for implementation, energy goals, and investment criteria allows an energy study to be delivered with a high probability of implementation. Maintaining contact with the customer throughout the study process and working with decision makers before and after the study allows the outreach team to overcome barriers to implementation by keeping the customer engaged and the projects top-of-mind.
This case study is taken from NYSERDA’s energy study program, called FlexTech. The FlexTech program, provides technical assistance (co-funded by NYSERDA) to take the next step. A recent evaluation of FlexTechdetermined outcomes for over 2,400 measures recommended in over 300 energy audits provided over an 8-year period. The measure adoption rate of controls measures was 70% within the first year of the study and over 80% four years after the energy study. The high implementation rate of controls projects speaks to the effectiveness of energy studies being the vehicle to deep savings. Without NYSERDA outreach program, the majority of these FlexTech opportunities would not have been identified.
ERS also supports Public Service of New Hampshire with outreach and energy studies for their large commercial and industrial customers. In one example of an energy study completed for a three-story commercial facility. The end use profile shows that HVAC is the second largest end use in the facility. We identified deep saving retrofits related to optimized control of the facility’s HVAC system with estimated bill savings of 29%. Engaging the customer before, during, and after the audit and supporting them through implementation was key to implementing these complex measures. Following implementation, energy savings of 36% were observed on the customer’s utility bill. These results highlight a few key points. One, supporting the customer before, during, and after the project bridged the gap from discovery to 100% implementation. Two, the energy study was effective at identifying deep saving retrofits related to optimizing the facility’s HVAC system. Three, the impact of the study on the utility bill’s bottom line was substantial.
So now that we’ve caught all the 1 lb. bass in the lake, it’s time we put some stronger fishing line on and go out and catch that 5 lber.
