**Utility Sounding Board (USB) Meeting**

**Portland, Oregon**

**December 14, 2005**

USB members in attendance:

-   Peter Anderson -- Kootenai Electric Coop (via phone)

-   Brent Barclay -- Columbia River PUD

-   Jay Himlie -- Mason Co. PUD #3

-   Mike Little -- Seattle City Light

-   Keith Lockhart -- Springfield Utility Board

-   Kathy Moore -- Umatilla Electric/PNGC

-   Tom Schumacher -- Benton Co. PUD

-   Mary Smith -- Puget Sound Energy

-   Dan Villalobos -- Inland Power and Light

BPA staff in attendance at various times:

-   Bruce Cody (RTF issues/grocery store initiative)

-   Jennifer Eskil (Compressed air toolkit)

-   Adam Hadley (PTCS™ issues)

-   Karen Meadows

-   Tom Hannon (Rotating USB Energy Efficiency Representative)

-   Ottie Nabors (PTCS™ issues)

-   Rosalie Nourse

-   Jean Oates

-   Tom Osborn (Compressed air toolkit)

-   Mira Vowles

**Handouts**

-   Agenda

-   Summary of USB Utility Tools Survey Results

-   Draft 2006 Utility Energy Efficiency Workshop Concept Summary and
    Agenda

-   Compressed Air Toolkit Outline for Utilities (12/13/05)

-   Draft Compressed Air Accomplishments and Savings Potential
    (12/15/05)

-   Regional Technical Forum Agenda (12/12/05)

-   Post-2006 New Initiative Incentives and Targets (12/13/05)

-   Draft PTCS Infrastructure Provider

-   Best Practices Components

-   EnVinta Materials

[RTF/Energy Smart Grocer Initiative (Bruce Cody)]{.underline}

-   RTF members are there to represent the art or science of a
    technology or measure, not their organization interests.

-   Bruce will notify the USB of RTF recommendations and other
    information; he'll forward to the USB the draft RTF meeting agendas
    as he receives them.

-   Measurement and verification may be different for grocery stores.
    There are a lot of diverse, small non-cookie cutter facilities and
    no deemed savings numbers. One approach is the Portland Energy
    Conservation, Inc (PECI) Energy Smart Grocer (ESG) Program:

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-   Focus on 1-year payback to the grocery store owner

-   Administrative costs will be high because this is a hard to reach
    market

-   Assuming the same penetration as was achieved through PECI's
    California grocery store program, the proposed program is considered
    cost effective.

-   The RTF role is to determine if the initiative is technically
    feasible, not to dictate how it should be set up. The RTF is
    concerned with how to measure costs and savings, approaches,
    evaluation plan, and cost-effectiveness on a planning basis, etc.
    They are examining PECI's assumptions and calculator. Could use the
    PECI calculator to determine measure savings if we are satisfied
    with the assumptions and calculation methods used in the calculator.
    Would require some small-scale monitoring. The RTF thinks the
    program is reasonable, but is waiting for additional information.

-   Seattle City Light has done a lot of grocery stores; equipment might
    be the same for various size stores; for the bigger stores (chains),
    a central location, rather than local store, makes the decisions.
    SCL may be willing to provide grocery store program data to RTF.

-   PECI started with small stores and branched out to the chains.
    Energy Smart Grocer (ESG) is a third-party initiative, although the
    utility needs to be involved from the beginning.

-   The trick is to integrate marketing ESG with the utility, but to not
    customize by utility, which is too cost prohibitive.

> BPA still needs to determine how to best structure funding for the
> initiative. Utilities want the option of using their rate credit to
> pay for grocery store measures in their service territory.

-   BPA could provide a binder of PECI ESG materials to USB members.

-   Puget Sound Energy has a contract with PECI and is starting ESG this
    week (12/14).

[PTCS/Heat Pumps (Ottie Nabors/Adam Hadley)]{.underline}

-   Duct sealing training/certification needs to be made available.

-   The states are taking responsibility for the duct sealing portion of
    the training.

-   BPA is considering funding vendor training for commissioning. The
    emphasis is not on cooling, rather the training will cover
    commissioning.

-   There may be more information on PTCS at the March workshop.

-   This is a lot to go through for a \$600 incentive; utilities have to
    try to keep costs down.

-   It's a burden to the consumer to have three different entities
    checking/inspecting. Need to have one person qualified to do both
    the inspection and quality assurance (QA).

-   The states don't have money for QA and BPA won't pay for QA for duct
    sealing.

-   BPA should take it back to the states to streamline QA.

-   Grant Co. verifies installations; ENERGY STAR^®^ Homes pays the
    installer.

-   It's a problem for utilities using E-STAR Homes, when training isn't
    available until summer.

-   The duct sealing incentive is not in addition to the heat pump
    incentive; it's all under the heat pump installation incentive. Ken
    Keating will be invited to the January USB conference call to talk
    about why BPA decided to do commissioning and the results of the
    heat pump study.

-   Utilities need a fact sheet on all of this.

[Best Practices (Karen Meadows)]{.underline}

-   Calling it "Best Practices" might be kind of intimidating.

-   Take the Best Practices category and have an example case study for
    something in each category and have this available at the March
    workshop: Case studies should address the following:

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-   What is the measure?

-   How does it fit in a program?

-   How can it be implemented?

-   What's the location of project?

-   Is it relevant to the Northwest?

-   Cost effectiveness and total resource factors?

-   What's the market potential?

-   What's the role of trade allies?

-   Provide a contingency plan.

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-   Create a standard template and sample.

-   The National Best Practices handout list is biased toward large
    utilities and not relevant to the region.

[March Workshop (Mira Vowles)]{.underline}

-   Kathy Moore agreed to serve as workshop chairperson.

-   Having the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEAA) speak at the
    workshop goes against the peer-sharing focus. Having NEAA provide
    contact suggestions to utilities for specific initiatives is
    acceptable.

-   What are the goals?

-   Peer sharing:

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-   Examples of program-related materials or practices that would be
    beneficial to other utilities. Create a Best Practices case study
    out of the information.

-   Invite peers to provide brochures, flyers, presentations, etc., to
    put on the BPA/USB web site.

-   BPA could send out a list of links for the USB to look at and
    discuss during a conference call.

-   It would be helpful to list utilities that do specific programs,
    rather than posting their materials on the web site.

-   Provide templates with information on the USB web site, and then
    provide a link to the utility web site.

-   Link to the main level, not deep down to a specific page; those
    specific links frequently change.

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-   There may be a CRC reporting session on the day before and the day
    after the workshop; 42 small utilities have never had to use the
    reporting software -- they really need the training.

-   Add a spot on the registration form for utilities to enter their
    purchase order number for accounting purposes.

[New Initiatives/Non-utility Delivery (Karen Meadows)]{.underline}

-   What should be BPA's role in getting more trade allies out there,
    and how to sequence stuff on new Post-2006 initiatives, incentives,
    and targets?

-   Clothes washers -- when will BPA notify utilities of incentive level
    changes, etc., i.e., how far in advance. Bring these changes to the
    USB before they are announced or become effective.

[Compressed Air (CA) (Jennifer Eskil/Tom Osborne)]{.underline}

-   How do utilities know what the potential is for their territory?

-   What processes use compressed air?

-   Provide a tip or fact sheet and a tool to estimate the potential due
    to CA.

-   CA represents about 13 percent of industrial energy use.

-   SCL may have some CA studies.

-   Many utilities are interested in technical assistance. They can't go
    through the TSP unless they choose the 12¢ option, although they can
    use the list with the 15¢ option but it won't be funded by BPA.

-   If a utility pays for a study, which shows it is a good project,
    consider having the end user repay the utility for the study if the
    project is not implemented with one year.

-   USB thinks the CA toolkit idea is great, but add a definition and
    background.

[CFL Fixtures (Mary Smith)]{.underline}

-   A CFL fixtures presentation was made to the RTF by Puget Sound
    Energy, Seattle City Light, Tacoma Power, Snohomish Co. PUD, and the
    City of Ellensburg. Mary summarized the presentation and RTF
    discussion. Highlights follow:

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-   Vendors were brought in to talk about fixture applications.

-   Fixtures are needed to reach the savings goal.

-   The RTF is looking for measured savings numbers.

-   CFL fixtures are cost effective.

-   The RTF said it is BPA's decision to allow/disallow CFL fixtures.
    (It was frustrating for some utility representatives to spend a lot
    of time on the discussion with the RTF, only to find out that
    according to Tom Eckman, the decision is in BPA hands. Clarification
    -- BPA's program will pay for CFLs. The utility could apply this
    payment towards fixtures. Unless the RTF agrees that there are more
    savings from fixtures, BPA will continue to pay the same rate for
    CFLs as for fixtures.

-   Fixtures especially important with E-STAR New Homes. At \$20 per
    fixture, it averages out for the builder.

-   With fixtures, savings are more sustainable.

-   Fixtures are dimmable

-   Removable ballasts have about a 50,000 to 60,000 hour life; bulb
    life is about 20,000 hours.

-   Mary's opinion is that the CFL fixture studies referred to by Ken
    Keating (Vermont/New Hampshire (?)) were not robust studies; they
    were based on 34 and 74 participants.

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-   Pin configuration is not consistent across manufacturers.

-   The CE is tracking this at the national level.

-   PSE is examining the "snap-back" effect for CFLs -- based on an
    estimate that is not very robust, the rate is 2 percent for fixtures
    and 12 percent for bulbs.

[USB Customer Tools Survey (Jean Oates)]{.underline}

-   42 utilities responded to the survey, a response rate of about 30
    percent.

-   67 percent of survey respondents are eastside utilities; 33 percent
    are westside. There were a couple of areas where there was a
    significant difference in the responses based on utility location.
    For example, 88 percent of eastside vs. 42 percent of westside
    utilities indicated a need for technical assistance.

-   Utilities would like flyers for their consumers and need fact sheets
    on the Federal Energy Tax Credit and heat pumps, and a list of
    helpful web sites.

-   75 percent of survey respondents would like more information on the
    commercial sector.

-   The survey summary is posted on the Energy Efficiency web site at:
    <http://www.bpa.gov/Energy/N/Utilities_Sharing_EE/Utility_Sounding_Board/Survey/>

Action Items

+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| BPA     | -   Bruce Cody to notify the USB of RTF recommendations    |
|         |     and to forward to the USB draft RTF meeting agendas as |
|         |     he receives them.                                      |
|         |                                                            |
|         | -   Create fact sheets on PTCS/heat pumps, compressed air, |
|         |     best practices (case studies), and the Federal Energy  |
|         |     Tax Credits.                                           |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| USB     | -   Provide names of potential workshop panelists and      |
|         |     moderators to Mira Vowles.                             |
+---------+------------------------------------------------------------+

Next Meetings

+------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
| -   January 11,  | Conference call, 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.          |
|     2006:        |                                                   |
+------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
| -   February 8,  | Face-to-face meeting, 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. *(to |
|     2006:        | be discussed on Jan 11^th^ call)*                 |
+------------------+---------------------------------------------------+

**Potential Agenda Item for Next Meeting:** EnVinta presentation that
was on the agenda for this meeting was postponed until January 11.