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RTF Quarterly Newsletter: Quarter No. 57 July — September 2024

The RTF got cooking at the end of summer, updating the suite of food service measures. They also managed to stay cool, approving updates to the refrigerated doorway air curtain measure and revising the refrigeration metrics in the Standard Information Workbook. The RTF also approved updates to two heat pump measures for single family and manufactured homes.

Contact Laura Thomas, RTF Manger with questions or comments or check out the RTF Website. 

Measure Highlights

Food Service Measures

The RTF turned up the heat, updating three of the seven RTF commercial food service UES measures, specifically steamers, combination ovens, and griddles. These three measures represent approximately 2 aMW and 862,000 therms of potential energy savings in the region. Steamers, combination ovens, and griddles are common equipment found in restaurants, schools, hospitals, and other buildings with commercial kitchens. The three RTF measures all use ENERGY STAR® specifications to identify high efficiency equipment and use a current practice baseline. Both steamers and combination ovens are cost-effective measures. The RTF approved the updates to these measures as presented, with a sunset date of May 2028.

Refrigerated Doorway Air Curtains

In July, the RTF updated the Refrigerated Doorway Air Curtains UES measure, which are for the installation of a unit that creates a thin barrier of air when a doorway is open. These measures are specific to the installation of air curtains for refrigerated spaces including walk-in coolers or freezers in grocery stores or cold storage centers. The measure represents approximately 11 aMW of potential in the Northwest region. The updates to this Planning measure focused on the costs and incorporation of new energy efficiency ratio values once the Standard Information Workbook is updated.

 

Air Source Heat Pumps

The RTF tackled several heat pump updates during this quarter representing almost 300 aMW of regional potential. Given the significant potential in the region, the RTF has been discussing the results of recent analysis of regional data to identify opportunities to improve savings of heat pump installed in the Northwest. As part of this effort, the RTF has identified some potential new measures to ensure acheivement of savings from this technology. The RTF will continue to update and maintain the existing measures that allow for fewer barriers to entry for programs and customers but also have reduced savings. In July and September, the RTF reviewed and updated the centrally ducted and ductless heat pump measures for single family and manufactured homes, as well as the ductless heat pump for multifamily. These measures allow for the installation of heat pumps to replace existing electric resistance heating systems and for the centrally ducted systems there is an additional option for the installation of an upgraded or more efficient heat pump. Given the continued interest in heat pump technology, these measures will support current programs while the RTF explores and develops newer measures in 2025.

Standard Information Workbook

The RTF maintains a Standard Information Workbook (SIW), which provides assumptions and data that are used across multiple RTF measures and standard protocols to ensure consistency on common metrics and analysis. As part of maintaining this workbook, the RTF periodically reviews and updates all assumptions, particularly those tabs not updated during a recent measure revision process. In 2024, the RTF planned to review and update all tabs of the SIW and the first round of revisions were approved by the RTF in July, including adding language about updating the weighting factors to only represent in-region portions of Montana, using current year dollar amounts for retail electricity rates, and removing kWh to ton-hour from conversion rates. In September, the RTF also approved replacing the Energy Efficiency Ratio metric with the Refrigeration System Marginal Efficiency Ratios in the SIW. The remaining tabs are set for update later in 2024.

Non-Measure Work

2025 Draft RTF Work Plan and Draft 2025-2029 Business Plan

Staff presented both the 2025 Draft RTF Work Plan and the Draft 2025-2029 Business Plan to the RTF in July. The 2025 calendar year will represent the first year in the new business plan and with that the RTF Policy Advisory Committee determined that the scope for the RTF should continue to include natural gas efficiency, increased support for demand response, and added budget to allow the RTF to perform research in support of reducing the uncertainty of RTF Planning Measures. At the July meeting, the RTF provided preliminary feedback on the proposed work plan, including recommendations on potential projects and scope for the research work. This meeting marked the start of a 30-day public comment period with comments due on August 23.

Update on Proposed Plan for Ductless Heat Pump Measures

Following the updates to the Centrally Ducted Air Source Heat Pump measures, the RTF in July spent some time preparing for the upcoming discussions that would focus on updates to the three ductless heat pump measures. Staff presented a primer on the technology, overview of the existing RTF measures, and outlined proposed updates. The RTF provided feedback on the higher program complexity, the reasons for eroding saving, and ways to get higher savings. This input will support staff in working with the Air Source Heat Pump Subcommittee and preparing proposed updates for the RTF to consider in the coming months.

Subcommittee Roundup

Regional HVAC experts met in August to discuss residential ductless heat pumps (Air Source Heat Pumps Subcommittee) ahead of upcoming measure updates. The group discussed many topics including: the need for a minimum HSPF2 or quality requirement, pre-charged equipment that could be user installed versus requiring refrigerant certified technicians, and O&M costs.

The Air Source Heat Pumps Subcommittee met again in September to review final Contract Analyst Team proposals for the topics discussed in August. They also covered system costs for equipment and installation, savings updates, and screens for kWh/heating consumption.

 

The Refrigeration Subcommittee convened in September to review the Automated High Speed Doors for Cold Storage measure. The group discussed factors that affect savings including the amount of time the doors are open, the seasonality of cold storage, and the efficiency of the mostly ammonia refrigeration systems.

The Small and Rural Subcommittee met in September to review recent RTF activity. The group also spent time reviewing the complicated and ever-changing Ductless Heat Pump market ahead of planned measure updates.

Measure Updates Approved in Q3

  • Approved measure updates to Steamers UES as presented, removed the Oregon application from the measure, kept the category as Small Saver, kept the status at Active, set the sunset date to May 31, 2028.
  • Approved the sunset date extensions to the November 30, 2024 for the following measures: Strip Curtain UES and Residential Gas Furnaces UES.
  • Approved the sunset date extension for the Small Commercial DHP UES to August 31, 2025.
  • Approved costs for Refrigerated Doorway Air Curtains UES as presented and following an update and approval of Standard Information Workbook, update the EER value and any other SIW updates for this measure and report results to RTF at a future meeting, kept the category at Planning, kept the status at Active, and set the sunset date to July 31, 2027.
  • Approved the Air Source Heat Pump Upgrades and Conversions for Single-Family and Manufactured Homes UES as presented and changed the name to “Centrally Ducted Air Source Heat Pump Upgrades and Conversions,” kept the category at proven for single family and manufactured homes in heating zone 1 and planning for manufactured homes heating zone 2/3 for conversions, changed the category to proven for single family heating zone 2/3 conversions, kept the category at Planning for all upgrade options, kept the status at Under Review for upgrades and conversions, set the sunset date to December 31, 2025.
  • Approved the updates to the baseline for the <15 pans and the 15-28 pans categories of the Combination Ovens UES.
  • Approved the sunset extension date for the New Homes Standard Protocol to December 31, 2025. Status was changed to Under Review.
  • Approved the SIW v5.0 updates as presented, updated the weighting factors to ensure Montana represents in-region portion only, show retail electricity rates in both current year dollars and 2016 dollars, and removed kWh to ton hour conversion factors.
  • Approved an extension to the sunset date for High Efficiency Residential Central Air Conditioner UES measure to March 31, 2025.
  • Approved updating the Standard Information Workbook with the proposed Refrigeration System Marginal Efficiency Ratios expressed in btu per W to replace the Energy Efficiency Ratios in the current workbook.
  • Approved the DHP for Electric Forced air furnaces single family and manufactured homes as presented and kept the category at proven for heating zone 1 and 2 and planning for heating zone 3. Kept the status at active. Set the sunset date to March 31, 2026.
  • Approved a sunset date extension for an update on the Ductless Heat Pumps for Multifamily planning UES to October 31, 2024.

 

Upcoming at the RTF

In the next quarter the RTF will discuss:

October
  • Sunset date extensions for Retrofit Doors on Existing Display Cases UES and Residential Air Purifiers UES
  • Fryers UES
  • Ductless Heat Pump for Zonal Single Family and Manufactured Home UES
  • Residential Gas Furnace UES
  • Strip Curtains UES
November
  • New Manufactured Homes and HVAC UES
  • Standard Information Workbook update
December
  • Sunset date extensions for Manufactured Homes Duct Sealing UES and Door Sweeps UES
  • Non-residential Lighting Midstream UES
  • Residential Heat Pump Water Heaters UES
  • Consumer Heat Pump Water Heaters in Commercial Applications UES
  • Industrial Strategic Energy Management