The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance provides a critical role for the energy efficiency infrastructure in our region. NEEA provides value by identifying new energy efficiency opportunities, working with manufacturers and the supply chain to bring those opportunities to the market at low costs, and securing in long-term savings through codes and standards support at both the federal and state level.[1] Additionally, NEEA facilitates and conducts regional research, such as the market research and stock assessments, that provide important input into energy efficiency programs regarding potential opportunities and strategies for addressing those.
By working together as a region through NEEA, the region’s efficiency programs can achieve economies of scale on each of these efforts. Rather than each utility putting forward the cost and effort of exploring emerging technologies, the effort through NEEA enables each utility’s investment to go further and the results of the research to be shared regionally. With markets being broader than individual utility jurisdictions, a single utility working with a manufacturer to bring new technology to market is likely to be less successful than working collectively through NEEA to create the broad regional interest needed to support manufacturer investment. Ultimately, the region’s energy efficiency programs are more effective because they have been able to join forces to support these efforts that otherwise would be challenging to undertake on their own.
Looking forward, to achieve the energy efficiency targets, the region will need to continue to support NEEA at levels at least commensurate with 2020 levels. This funding is critical to continued support of the regional research outlined here and across the conservation supporting materials. Additionally, NEEA efforts will be valuable in securing much of the low-cost energy efficiency that is best acquired through market transformation efforts rather than through directly utility funded program. By sharing costs regionally on these efforts, the region and Bonneville will be better positioned to achieve the plan targets with effective use of limited resources.
[1] This work includes providing information on building and equipment efficiency, data to support test procedures, and coordinating with advisory committees during rulemaking proceedings (such as the U.S. Department of Energy’s Appliance Standards and Rulemaking Federal Advisory Committee). It also includes moving forward important building code, such as manufactured housing energy construction codes.