Greg Rosenquist

The Tariff Analysis Project: A database and analysis platform forelectricity tariffs

Much of the work done in energy research involves an analysis of the costs and benefits of energy-saving technologies and other measures from the perspective of the consumer. The economic value in particular depends on the price of energy (electricity, gas or other fuel), which varies significantly both for different types of consumers, and for different regions of the country. Ideally, to provide accurate information about the economic value of energy savings, prices should be computed directly from real tariffs as defined by utility companies. A large number of utility tariffs are now available freely over the web, but the complexity and diversity of tariff structures presents a considerable barrier to using them in practice. The goal of the Tariff Analysis Project (TAP) is to collect andarchive a statistically complete sample of real utility tariffs, and build a set of database and web tools that make this information relatively easy to use in cost-benefit analysis. This report presentsa detailed picture of the current TAP database structure and web interface. While TAP has been designed to handle tariffs for any kind of utility service, the focus here is on electric utilities withinthe United States. Electricity tariffs can be very complicated, so the database structures that have been built to accommodate them are quite flexible and can be easily generalized to other commodities.

Advanced technologies for residential appliance and lighting market transformation

Abstract This article describes an assessment of options for and barriers to improved efficiency in four key energy consuming residential products: refrigerator/freezers, clothes washers, electric water heaters, and lighting equipment. National energy savings were calculated using the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratorys (LBNL) Residential Energy Model, which projects the number of households and appliance saturations over time. Energy savings are shown for the period 1998 to 2015. The analysis shows that significant energy savings beyond those achieved through existing efficiency standards are possible. In the face of market and other barriers, however, realizing the technical potentials described in this paper will require an active policy approach to market transformation. Since this article was completed, LBNL has commenced a new set of analyses of energy savings potential in refrigerator/freezers and clothes washers. These and subsequent analyses may enhance technical information given here, furthering an understanding of energy efficiency potential in the residential and commercial sectors.

Life-cycle cost and payback period analysis for commercial unitary air conditioners

LBNL-54244 Life-cycle Cost and Payback Period Analysis for Commercial Unitary Air Conditioners Greg Rosenquist, Katie Coughlin, Larry Dale, James McMahon, Steve Meyers Energy Analysis Department Environmental Energy Technologies Division Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 March 2004 This work was supported by the Office of Building Technologies of the U.S. Department of Energy, under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.

Energy efficiency standards for residential and commercial equipment: Additional opportunities

LBNL-56207 Energy Efficiency Standards for Residential and Commercial Equipment: Additional Opportunities Greg Rosenquist, Michael McNeil, Maithili Iyer, Steve Meyers, and Jim McMahon Environmental Energy Technologies Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 September 2004 This work was supported by the National Commission on Energy Policy through the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.

Investigation of residential central air conditioning load shapes in NEMS

This memo explains what Berkeley Lab has learned about how the residential central air-conditioning (CAC) end use is represented in the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS). NEMS is an energy model maintained by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) that is routinely used in analysis of energy efficiency standards for residential appliances. As part of analyzing utility and environmental impacts related to the federal rulemaking for residential CAC, lower-than-expected peak utility results prompted Berkeley Lab to investigate the input load shapes that characterize the peaky CAC end use and the submodule that treats load demand response. Investigations enabled a through understanding of the methodology by which hourly load profiles are input to the model and how the model is structured to respond to peak demand. Notably, it was discovered that NEMS was using an October-peaking load shape to represent residential space cooling, which suppressed peak effects to levels lower than expected. An apparent scaling down of the annual load within the load-demand submodule was found, another significant suppressor of the peak impacts. EIA promptly responded to Berkeley Labs discoveries by updating numerous load shapes for the AEO2002 version of NEMS; EIA is still studying the scaling issue. As a result of this work, it was concluded that Berkeley Labs customary end-use decrement approach was the most defensible way for Berkeley Lab to perform the recent CAC utility impact analysis. This approach was applied in conjunction with the updated AEO2002 load shapes to perform last years published rulemaking analysis. Berkeley Lab experimented with several alternative approaches, including modifying the CAC efficiency level, but determined that these did not sufficiently improve the robustness of the method or results to warrant their implementation. Work in this area will continue in preparation for upcoming rulemakings for the other peak coincident end uses, commercial air conditioning and distribution transformers.

Tariff-based analysis of commercial building electricityprices

This paper presents the results of a survey and analysis ofelectricity tariffs and marginal electricity prices for commercialbuildings. The tariff data come from a survey of 90 utilities and 250tariffs for non-residential customers collected in 2004 as part of theTariff Analysis Project at LBNL. The goals of this analysis are toprovide useful summary data on the marginal electricity prices commercialcustomers actually see, and insight into the factors that are mostimportant in determining prices under different circumstances. We providea new, empirically-based definition of several marginal prices: theeffective marginal price and energy-only anddemand-only prices, andderive a simple formula that expresses the dependence of the effectivemarginal price on the marginal load factor. The latter is a variable thatcan be used to characterize the load impacts of a particular end-use orefficiency measure. We calculate all these prices for eleven regionswithin the continental U.S.