Wednesday, April 20, 2022
10:00am – 12:00pm
Pre-Forum Workshop (for Utility and Government Attendees Only)
Session Co-Chairs: Paul Reid, Azusa Light & Water and Adrianne Rogers, City of Colton Electric Utility
Candid roundtable discussion on current issues, including these highest-ranked responses to a recent survey of registrants:
- How to Handle Mixed Messaging of Energy Efficiency versus Load Growth through Electrification
- Electrification Opportunities and Challenges
- Opportunities and Challenges with Distributed Energy Resources
12:00pm – 1:00pm
Lunch Buffet - hosted by Brighton Energy
12:45pm – 1:00pm
First-timer Orientation and Welcome
1:00pm – 1:15pm
Welcoming Remarks
Mary Medeiros McEnroe, Silicon Valley Power
1:15pm – 2:15pm
Opening Keynote: Building a Culture of Teamwork for Engagement, Happiness and High Performance
Barry Moline, California Municipal Utilities Association
We don't actually work for organizations. Wait... What? We are motivated to work for - and do a good job for - each other. When people learn more about one another - by sharing stories about their backgrounds and what's going on in their lives - they find common ground and begin to like each other. And when they know their colleagues better and know their purpose, they want to do a good job for the team. The results are better solutions, higher productivity, more creativity, and a workplace where people are challenged, they enjoy and don't consider leaving. Barry shares the secrets - and the specific actions - successful organizations use to swiftly build collaborative teams that get top-tier results.
2:15pm – 2:45pm
Networking Break and Energy Quiz
Quiz Emcee: Mark Gosvener, Efficiency Services Group
2:45pm – 4:10pm
Strategic/Policy View
Session Co-Chairs: Ron Horstman, Western Area Power Administration and Mary Medeiros McEnroe, Silicon Valley Power
This year’s panel discussion will focus on how utilities can ensure equitable benefits and burdens in the transition to a clean energy future.
4:10pm – 4:15pm
Quick Break
4:15pm – 5:15pm
Meet the Exhibitors
5:15pm
Adjourn
5:15pm – 6:15pm
Reception
6:30pm
Dinner
8:00pm
Networking Campfire
Unwind at a casual gathering around the fire ring to reflect on the day's discussion and look ahead to tomorrow. Join us for a fun networking game to get to know your fellow attendees.
Thursday, April 21, 2022
7:30am – 8:30am
Breakfast Buffet
8:30am – 9:45am
Beneficial Electrification and the Future of Natural Gas Utilities
Session Co-Chairs: Dan Kay, Wahkiakum County PUD and Scott Mayfield, Evergreen Efficiency
9:45am – 10:15am
Networking Break with Energy Quiz
Quiz Emcee: Mark Gosvener, Efficiency Services Group
10:15am – 11:00am
Utility Program Stand-up Challenge – Round 1
Session Co-Chairs: Cheri Davis, SMUD and Kamryn Hutson, Redding Electric Utility
Join us for the craziest round of concurrent sessions ever! Imagine speed dating meets the lightning round of a TV game show! Visit storyboards detailing utility-sponsored energy programs or research. Each storyboard presenter has up to 5 minutes (plus up to 7 minutes for Q&A) to share with you the program’s goals, successes and lessons learned. A bell rings, you choose another storyboard, and the 12-minute clock starts again.
- SMUD Smart Homes: Lessons Learned in SMUD's All-Electric New Homes Program
Mayra Vega, TRC and Ray Nalangan, SMUD
In just over 2 years of operation, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s (SMUD) All-Electric Smart Homes Program exceeded expectations with approximately 100 developments, totaling 5,600 single family and multifamily units, committing to the program. Through the marketing of electrification benefits and cost savings, design assistance and lucrative incentives provided by SMUD, builder interest in all-electric homes grew tremendously. Given the success of the Smart Homes Program, SMUD incorporated incentives for next level technology such as battery energy storage and their community solar program Neighborhood SolarShares into the Smart Homes program. This offers homeowners a means to take full advantage of their all-electric home and appliances. This discussion will focus on the impact, successes and lessons learned from the Smart Homes Program and how it can be applied to other utilities, especially publicly owned utilities (POUs) like SMUD. Along these lines will be a discussion on funding mechanisms for all-electric programs. In addition, we will look at how the program will be modified to keep builders and homeowners interested in all-electric homes for future Title 24 code cycles.
- Making Heat Pump Water Heaters work in Commercial Kitchens
David Zabrowski, The Food Service Technology Center
Water heating poses one of the greatest technical challenges to kitchen electrification. Installing commercially available heat pump water heaters (HPWHs) into typical kitchen hot water systems is a recipe for poor performance. Making HPWHs work in commercial kitchens requires a rethinking of hot water system design, including more efficient and optimized plumbing design, heat recovery, decentralized heating, recirculation controls, and potentially adding extra storage and booster capacity. This poster session will explain the challenges HPWHs face in commercial kitchens and share the basic design strategies that will help to integrate this super-efficient technology into all-electric kitchens.
-
DOE Technology Campaigns – Unlocking Doors for Underutilized Energy Efficiency Technologies
Christian Valoria, PNNL
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) uses technology campaigns as a tool to increase awareness and speed the adoption of impactful but underutilized energy efficiency technologies. To date, these campaigns have largely focused on the commercial sector, but two new DOE technology campaigns hope to translate the success of commercial campaigns to the residential sector. The Storm Window and Insulating Panel Campaign (SWIP Campaign) aims to leave no poor-performing window behind by encouraging the use of low-emissivity (low-e) storm windows and insulating panels, where full window replacement is not feasible. The Smart Tools for Efficient HVAC Campaign (STEP Campaign) aims to improve the quality of residential HVAC by encouraging the use of smart diagnostic tools which enable technicians to quickly (and properly) install, tune-up, and troubleshoot residential central air conditioners, heat pumps, and other HVAC equipment. This poster session will introduce the SWIP and STEP campaigns, describe the impactful but underutilized technologies behind the campaigns, and provide information on how utilities and others can get involved.
-
Delivering Post-Pandemic Ventilation without Doubling your Utility
Lisa Benatar, City of Palo Alto Utilities and Dr. Cliff Federspiel, Vigilent
Delivering post-pandemic healthy ventilation by opening outside dampers to 100% outside air can easily double a commercial utility bill. Palo Alto partnered with Vigilent to use a science-based approach to measure the risk of airborne exposure to Covid and mitigate the risk with efficient HVAC changes. This case study will describe a commercial building project in Palo Alto that measures and delivers healthy air to meet ASHRAE Airflow and CA Title 24-2019 compliance while optimizing the operation of the HVAC systems consistent with the building owner’s needs. Visit this poster to see how building operators can manage HVAC healthy ventilation efficiently in a post-pandemic world.
11:00pm – 12:00pm
Midpoint Keynote
- Policy Trends and Customer Expectations
Joy Ditto, American Public Power Association
Policy trends and customer expectations are driving change in the electric utility sector. The utility business model presents abundant opportunity by continuing to demonstrate superior performance. Joy Ditto will reflect on our strengths, the challenges ahead, and how utility leaders must act to support continued success.
12:00pm – 1:00pm
Lunch Buffet
1:00pm – 2:00pm
Utility Program Stand-up Challenge – Round 2
Session Co-Chairs: Cheri Davis, SMUD and Kamryn Hutson, Redding Electric Utility
Join us for the craziest round of concurrent sessions ever! Imagine speed dating meets the lightning round of a TV game show! Visit storyboards detailing utility-sponsored energy programs or research. Each storyboard presenter has up to 5 minutes (plus up to 7 minutes for Q&A) to share with you the program’s goals, successes and lessons learned. A bell rings, you choose another storyboard, and the 12-minute clock starts again.
- We’re Listening! Research Results of Smart Speakers as the New Utility Customer Interface
Mark Martinez, Southern California Edison and Julie Hayes, JHC LLC
Smart Speakers can provide a “voice-activated” interface for electric utilities and their customers that could dramatically transform the customer relationship model. Utilities across the US have created smart speaker skills to educate customers about utility services and assist them in reducing their home’s energy use. California’s three electric IOUs are all conducting studies to determine the effectiveness of smart speakers to support customer energy management related to rate selection, customer education, demand reduction, and public safety power shut-off notification. This poster session will detail the scope of the projects and review goals, methodologies, and key learnings from each utility pilot, along with final evaluation metrics around energy savings, peak load management, and customer satisfaction.
-
Home Electrification Readiness Assessments - helping residents “BE Ready” for electrification
Scott Melberg, City of Palo Alto Utilities
A key component of Palo Alto’s path towards reaching its ambitious sustainability and climate action goals is building electrification. Getting customers ready for building electrification requires a number of levers including awareness, education and preparation. With the successful history of providing free over-the-phone energy and water efficiency advice and in-home comprehensive assessments, Palo Alto Utilities’ Home Efficiency Genie (HEG) program grew to also provide support for building electrification. The Home Electrification Readiness Assessment (HERA) was developed in collaboration with program vendor CLEAResult as a part of the Genie program. The HERA’s interactive service and custom electrical capacity tool combine to help customers evaluate their existing home electrical loads and electric panel capacity, suggesting scenarios for converting gas appliances to electric or adding EV charging equipment. Originally developed as part of the in-home assessment process, the HERA service has also been adapted to serve customers virtually in response to COVID. Through a virtual platform, the Genie advisor can “walk” through a customer’s home, collecting HERA information and guiding customers in considering various electrification plans, even helping them find contractors and supporting all aspects of the project.
-
Breaking Barriers: REU's Income-Qualified EV Vouchers
Lisa Casner and Kamryn Hutson, Redding Electric Utility
The City of Redding Electric Utility (REU) has offered customers rebates for electric vehicle (EV) purchases since 2017 to help increase adoption in the community. However, REU's current rebate programs leave out low-income customers who cannot afford a down payment to reduce the up-front costs of purchasing or leasing an EV. To meet the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) equity requirements, the REU Resources team strategized on the best way to target the low-income sector for EV adoption. Based on feedback from dealerships on the ease and success of California's Clean Fuel Reward (CFR) program, REU worked on developing its own rebate process that would enable low-income customers to receive a point-of-purchase rebate. The EV Voucher program is a new approach and unlike any other incentive offered by the utility. The proposed Electric Vehicle (EV) Voucher program incentivizes qualified dealerships to offer new and used EVs to low-income customers, thus reducing upfront costs that lead to nearly $100 savings per month. This poster session focuses on how REU developed the EV Voucher program and how we plan to implement it as part of our electrification program rollout.
-
Savings Potential from Residential Well Pumps
Yemi Akoda UC Davis Energy Graduate Group
Residential well pumps consume a considerable amount of energy that is only anticipated to increase with climate change and more severe droughts. Students at UC Davis evaluated the prevalence of residential well pumps across California and their energy saving potential. Residential customers can meaningfully reduce their utility bills by scheduling their pumps to run off-peak and by replacing their single-speed pumps with variable-speed equipment. Come to this poster to learn about the energy and peak savings potential from well pumps.
-
Including Low-Income Customers in Decarbonization Programs
Darin Schrum, SMUD
In our continually changing landscape, utilities should consider the direction we are taking and how it impacts the future for our customers and the environment. We need to consider low-income customers as part of any decarbonization strategy. Not only is this the right thing to do, but it will be especially important given the projected rise in fossil fuel prices. In 2019 SMUD integrated electrification into the low-income weatherization program. To date SMUD has successfully installed over 1600 gas-to-electric conversion measures in low-income households, providing increased comfort, reduced energy bills, and improved indoor air quality. This poster will cover lessons learned from integrating electrification into our existing program as well as how we identify and prioritize our low-income customers.
2:00pm – 3:30pm
Technology View
Session Co-Chairs: Katie Cort, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Mark Rehley, NEEA
3:30pm – 4:00pm
Networking Break and Energy Quiz
Quiz Emcee: Mark Gosvener, Efficiency Services Group
4:00pm – 5:15pm
Customer View
Session Co-Chairs: Joanna Ruiz, Southern California Public Power Authority and Mary Medeiros McEnroe, Silicon Valley Power
5:15pm – 6:15pm
Reception
6:30pm
Dinner with Trivia Night
8:00pm
Wine Tasting & Networking
Friday, April 22, 2022
7:30am – 8:30am
Breakfast Buffet
8:30am – 10:00am
Incorporating Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Utility Programs
Session Chair: Mary Medeiros McEnroe, Silicon Valley Power
10:00am – 10:30am
Networking Break with Energy Quiz
Quiz Emcee: Mark Gosvener, Efficiency Services Group
10:30am – 12:00pm
Utility Programs Snapshot
Session Co-Chairs: Mary Medeiros McEnroe, Silicon Valley Power and Dan Kay, Wahkiakum PUD
12:00pm
Closing Remarks and Adjourn
12:00pm – 1:00pm
Lunch