Research and Reports

Key stakeholders—including energy efficiency advocates, businesses, and trade associations, along with representatives of the homebuilding industry—negotiated this language. This stakeholder engagement process was robust, and many accommodations and concessions that endure today in the Senate provisions were made to address concerns of the homebuilding industry. We are very concerned that weakening these provisions would unravel this hard-fought compromise and severely jeopardize the opportunity to enact meaningful energy legislation this year.

HPC participated in a broader working group of residential building industry organizations to prepare comments on the New Efficiency, New York White Paper. That working group included: Association for Energy Affordability, Inc., Building Performance Institute (BPI), Building Performance Contractors Association of New York State, Dick Kornbluth, LLC, E4TheFuture, Efficiency First, HPC, Performance Systems Development, Seek More LLC and True Energy Solutions.

The purpose of this report is to identify the opportunities and barriers in creating a more unified set of cost-effective national residential energy efficiency programs for all income levels and to discuss the untapped potential for residential energy efficiency.

While HPC generally supports policy statements defined in bullets one, five, and six of RESNET’s Proposed Data Access Policy, we believe that this proposed data access policy overall is too restrictive and does sufficiently or comprehensively address the industry’s need for data on HERS rated homes. Therefore, instead of commenting on each point in the policy, HPC offers three general recommendations to inform the development of a more comprehensive data access policy.

Energy Efficiency/Demand Response programs have been demonstrated in numerous state and national studies to be lowest cost, most predictable and most immediate method to reduce energy demand while at the same time creating local jobs, providing opportunities for small business energy efficiency entrepreneurs and also providing health and comfort benefits to consumers and lower utility rates in the long term. We salute the legislature, the Governor and the Nevada Public Utilities Commission for initiating this Rulemaking Docket and energy efficiency planning process that will make Nevada a national leader in energy efficiency technology deployment, business development and also increase the reliability and security of Nevada’s energy system moving forward.

HPC believes that the economic conclusions presented in the Short Testimony cite no study or analysis that contradicts this generally accepted and recognized principle of energy supply and demand. Furthermore, Energy Efficiency/ Demand Response programs have been demonstrated in numerous state and national studies to be lowest cost, most predictable and most immediate method to reduce energy demand while at the same time creating local jobs and providing health and comfort benefits to consumers. All 50 states implement a suite of Energy Efficiency/Demand Response programs citing research supporting the economic case for demand response and energy efficiency.

As public utility commissions gather to discuss policies and programs that regulate how energy is used and moved in America, HPC releases its report, A Policymaker’s Guide to Incorporating Existing Homes into Carbon Reduction Strategies and Clean Power Plan Compliance to policymakers outlining key ways in which existing homes are a key aspect to carbon reductions strategies, with details on how they complement the Clean Power Plan (CPP). Along with providing a succinct and educational overview of how the residential community fits into the CPP, HPC solidifies why it is imperative that residential energy efficiency become an integral part of state carbon regulation strategies.

To ensure that a home’s green and/or energy efficient features and equipment are taken into account during an appraisal, it is important to document the home’s energy efficiency features in a standard format.

Overview & Introduction of Developing Your Test for the 2017 NARUC Summer Policy Summit 1. Principles 2. Resource Value Framework 3. Developing Resource Value Test 4. Relationship to Traditional Tests Secondary Tests Cost Effectiveness Testing