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While energy efficiency opportunities in end use technologies are a key aspect of conservation programs, many programs and standards are seeking deeper savings by approaching the building or system as a whole. As these types of programs do not lend themselves to the existing RTF measure structure, the RTF still sees the importance of supporting programs in this area and launched a concerted effort in 2018 to increase emphasis on whole building energy efficiency. After launching a scoping effort and discussing needs with regional programs, the RTF identified some gaps in existing guidance documents, particularly around estimating costs and lifetimes of whole building program approaches. The focus of this work to date has been on areas lacking guidance and on efforts where clarity is needed. This page provides details on the current resources and work on building and system level conservation.
 

Jump to:  Industrial SEM   Residential Behavior  Commercial Whole Buildings

Industrial SEM

At its July 2021 meeting, the RTF adopted a guidance document for Industrial Strategic Energy Management (SEM). The document is intended to supplement the RTF Guidelines by providing guidance specifically relevant to the evaluated program-level savings, costs, benefits, and lifetimes of measures implemented by industrial SEM programs. SEM is a collection of organizational practices, policies and processes intended to result in implementation of efficiency measures. Some programs target O&M while others pursue both capital and O&M measures. The guidance document lays out what is needed for evaluating savings claims to be consistent with other measures included in the Council’s Power Plan. It also provides some guidance on the level of effort, and which important questions may be impractical to resolve empirically. The document is not intended to be a duplication of evaluation guidance like those from IPMVP or BPA or to offer requirements for site-level savings values used in program engagement contexts.

Industrial SEM Guidance Document (Approved July 2021, Review expected in 2026)

Supporting documents: July 2021 presentation June 2021 presentation

Residential Behavior Guidance Document

In February 2022, the RTF approved a guidance document on evaluating energy savings for residential behavior home energy reports. This document intended to supplement the RTF Guidelines by providing guidance specifically relevant to the evaluated program-level savings, costs, benefits, and lifetime of measures implemented by Residential Behavior Home Energy Report (HER) programs. This guidance is not intended to prescribe methods for developing savings estimates used in program tracking, messaging, or contracting. These programs are defined as programs centered on the delivery of feedback regarding households’ energy consumption, frequently compared to a 'similar' or 'neighboring' household. They are designed to provide regular information to participating customers to affect their relationship with the energy used by their household.

Residential Behavior Guidance Document (Approved February 2022, Review expected in 2026)

Supporting document: February 2022 presentation

Commercial Whole Buildings

In recent years, the RTF has also explored commercial whole buildings, which focused on two areas. The first is understanding the reliability of savings estimates based on data-driven models of commercial building-level energy consumption, while the second pertains to deep savings interventions in commercial buildings.

The first focus area culminated in a white paper adopted by the RTF in May 2019. The paper summarized current research and analysis regarding reliability of savings estimates based on data-driven models of commercial building energy consumption. The RTF formally endorsed the findings and recommendations that were presented in the executive summary on May 21, 2019. The paper was intended to support current and future efforts to determine research priorities and develop guidance where needed. Presentations from both meetings are linked below as well as the final approved white paper.

"Energy Savings Estimates Based on Commercial Whole Building Data White Paper" (Approved May 2019)

Supporting documents:

May 2019 Subcommittee presentation

May 2019 RTF Meeting presentation 
 

The second area the RTF has focused on is understanding deep savings interventions in commercial buildings and using clearing examples to understand how to define the baseline. RTF and Council staff authored a paper at the 2024 ACEEE Summer Study Conference on this topic and the details were presented to the RTF in June 2023. The RTF has not formally adopted any resources as of yet in this area.

Deep Savings Interventions as an Energy Resource: Connecting the Dots (ACEEE Summer Study Paper by Josh Rushton, RTF Contract Analyst and Kevin Smit, Northwest Power and Conservation Council staff)

Supporting document: June 2023 RTF Meeting presentation

Preliminary Work

As a first step in exploring this whole building effort, the RTF contract analysts started to explore the value that models have in estimating energy savings for whole buildings, with a focus on what aspects of those models require greater scrutiny going forward. The following are materials produced from those efforts: