This report presents DNV GL’s impact evaluation of Energy Trust of Oregon’s Commercial Strategic Energy Management (SEM) offering, which is part of the Existing Buildings (EB) program. The impact evaluation is specific to the energy savings achieved by participants in 2013, 2014, and 2015. The evaluation concludes that over these three years the program achieved 51,541 MWh and 984,063 therms of energy efficiency savings by enabling and supporting improved energy management practices in commercial buildings. This report provides multiple performance metrics for the Energy Trust to consider for future program reporting.
Commercial SEM at Energy Trust is a program offering designed to deliver comprehensive energy services to large commercial customers, and focuses on behavioral and operational changes, as well as identifying capital projects. Energy consulting firms, known as Program Delivery Contractors (PDCs), hold workshops, help identify energy savings opportunities and provide training and technical support to participants over the course of a year.
Energy Trust claims savings based on a top-down analysis of building-level energy use and pays performance-based incentives to participants. Energy Trust enrolled its first group of participants in Commercial SEM in the fall of 2011. Now in its fifth year, Commercial SEM has evolved into a large portion of Energy Trust’s EB program, with significant annual gas and electric savings. In 2014, SEM comprised 27% of the EB program’s gas savings and 13% of its electric savings.
The primary results of this evaluation are the determination of achieved energy savings and associated realization rates. In addition, the evaluation provides recommendations to improve the accuracy of energy savings estimates and feedback from participants on how the SEM is impacting their energy consumption. The activities completed during this evaluation include interviews with program staff, PDCs, and participants; visits to participant locations; and analysis of participant consumption. The evaluation estimated overall savings achievements by extrapolating results from an analyzed stratified random sample.