EXPO 2020: Efficient Buildings as Energy Grid Resources

2020 RENEWABLE ENERGY & ENERGY EFFICIENCY EXPO Panel 1: Training a 21st Century Clean Energy Workforce Panel 2: Macro Benefits of Microgrids Panel 3: Advancing Climate Solutions Through Environmental Justice Panel 4: Efficient Buildings as Energy Grid Resources Panel 5: Sustainable Transportation Panel 6: New Frontiers in Clean Energy Research & Development

On July 30, 2020, the 23rd Annual Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency EXPO and Policy Forum brought together 25 businesses, trade associations, and government agencies to showcase clean energy industries. The bipartisan House and Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucuses served as the EXPO's honorary co-hosts, and the event was held online because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fourth panel of the day, "Efficient Buildings as Energy Grid Resources," focused on the building sector, which is underappreciated for its ability to contribute to carbon emission reductions on a near-immediate basis. Indeed, a building retrofit can be described in a nutshell: one day, inefficient and leaky; the next day, energy-efficient, comfortable, and productive. Increasingly, efficient buildings have the ability to communicate and respond to conditions on the energy grid.

U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island), who is the Co-Chair of the Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus, provided prerecorded introductory remarks.

View the full panel video above, or read the highlights below.

Group 4—Efficient Buildings as Energy Grid Resources

U.S. Department of Energy, Building Technologies Office Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers Association (PIMA) National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)

Introductory Remarks [prerecorded]: U.S. Senator Jack Reed (Rhode Island) David Nemtzow, Director, Building Technologies Office, U.S. Department of Energy Becca Trietch, Administrator, Energy Efficiency Programs, Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources Justin Koscher, President, Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers Association (PIMA) Keith Dennis, Vice President, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)

 

HIGHLIGHTS

 

David Nemtzow, Director, Building Technologies Office, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)

• Buildings can play an essential role in our energy future. Buildings consume 38 percent of all energy in the United States and just under three-fourths of electricity is consumed by buildings. Buildings set the peak in the power grid.
• Buildings are responsible for 35 percent of all carbon emissions in the United States, and much of the $400 billion spent every year on lighting, heating, and cooling is wasted through inefficient buildings.
• At DOE, through the Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings (GEB) program, the power of buildings is harnessed to turn them into dynamic energy resources. It's not just energy efficiency or demand response , but all that combined with energy storage to save power when it's most valuable. GEBs represent many opportunities for homes and businesses.

 

Becca Trietch, Administrator, Energy Efficiency Programs, Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources

• The Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources helps Rhode Island residents with affordable and reliable energy.
• Buildings can be a pathway for a decarbonized world and can save energy. In an ideal world, we would start with having better data on how a building is performing. With that information, we could implement all the cost-effective energy efficiency measures and then decarbonize the building’s thermal load and any transportation-related load that is connected to the building. Then, we could concentrate on connecting more renewable energy to the building. Throughout all these steps, demand response is critical to making sure that buildings are interacting as effectively as possible with the grid.
• At the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources, we are working with our utility to push forward energy management software, such as the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager® (provided by EPA), to understand and manage the energy usage of buildings. We support labeling policies that increase the disclosure of energy consumption in buildings. Data is important to make better decisions regarding energy usage in buildings.
• According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Rhode Island is the third-best state in the country in terms of energy usage and energy efficiency—behind only California and Massachusetts.
• It is important that we deliver energy efficiency opportunities throughout the lifetime of a building, and not just through one-off programs.
• Demand response programs can be offered in the same manner as energy efficiency programs and in a coordinated way.
• With respect to renewable energy, diversity is important. At the Rhode Island Energy Office, we support a variety of policies, such as tariffs, net metering and community solar.
• However, there are challenges:
  • Access and equity for everyone is important, especially when it comes to integrating renters into these programs.
  • More connections are needed between the aforementioned programs, including demand response, energy efficiency-focused programs, and net metering.
  • Policies that support decarbonization efforts need to be pursued. percent

 

Justin Koscher, President, Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers Association (PIMA)

• Building envelopes protect the space where people spend a lot of their time. High-performance buildings, which are important for energy efficiency, need to have a high-performance envelope.
  • Building envelopes include the building components that enclose the building, or the components that enclose the spaces between non-enclosed and enclosed spaces, such as insulation in the attic. These components are the doors, windows, roofs, and foundations of buildings.
  • The building envelope is a system, which includes all the different systems and components to reach the desired building performance.
• The building envelope is not a thing that you can upgrade five years into the life of a building. There are few opportunities during the lifetime of building when you can improve the building envelope components, and these include replacing the windows or the roof.
• Policy has a very important role to play in overcoming what is often a very narrow, short-term focus and maximizing energy efficiency opportunities. People don't like to invest money if it's going to take 5-10 years to recoup.

 

Keith Dennis, Vice President, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)

• Energy usage is an issue not just for larger commercial buildings in urban areas, it is also an issue for small buildings and existing homes in rural areas. Rural electric cooperatives serve a majority of these rural areas.
• We do not need to use energy during peak times of the day, which are the times when most energy is used. People can use water heater demand peak times programs, thermostat programs, and weatherization programs to reduce their peak loads. Because these programs reduce energy use, they provide opportunities to reduce stress to the power grid.
• Broadband is an enabling technology, but technology needs to be available and has to be accessible for everyone. Technology needs to bring value to people for it to be adopted, value such as increased comfort and lower energy usage. People need to see the benefits of grid-interactive efficient buildings. People can use the internet-connected devices they have in their homes, like Alexa, to run automated demand response programs that control the energy usage of their ACs and water heaters. For example, such programs could run their AC in a way that increases comfort and saves energy.
• Technology must be accessible to average folk, and most use technology to save energy and money. Rural electric cooperatives serve four-fifth of areas that are below their respective state’s median income. A major goal has to be to provide reliable, affordable, and clean energy.
• There are challenges to overcome:
  • Before, when more power was needed, a new central-power station would be plugged into the grid to increase power and reliability. Now, with more renewable energy, we have wind and solar, which are intermittent energy resources that provide power when nature wants. So, we need to have the technology to use these clean energy resources when they are available and not to waste them.
  • Beneficial electrification is a term that refers to the electrification of homes and businesses [beneficial electrification is the replacement of direct fossil fuel use (e.g., propane, heating oil, gasoline) with electricity in a way that reduces overall emissions and energy costs]. Beneficial electrification allows people to save energy and to adopt cool technologies such as internet-connected thermostats, demand response programs, and water heaters.

 

Q&A

 

Question: The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that in April, the United States consumed a total of 600 quadrillion BTUs, which is the lowest amount of energy consumption since 1989. While this is due to the coronavirus crisis, what is the role of energy efficiency as we try to make buildings more comfortable?

David Nemtzow: Energy usage is down, but the pandemic also means that energy usage has shifted from commercial usage to residential usage, as people are working from home due to COVID-19. In many commercial buildings, energy usage is not down as proportionally as we would like because energy is still being used. For example, in the building where I work the thermostat was still at 70 degrees, even though it was empty.

It is still too early to determine the near-term consequences of COVID-19 to commercial buildings and their usage, and so it is important not to make hasty decisions in the short-term. In the long-term, climate change is a big reason to make changes to our buildings to improve the environment, save energy, and reduce energy in commercial buildings.

Becca Trietch: More controls and data in buildings should be encouraged in these uncertain times. Now is the time to change building envelope systems in buildings that are unoccupied due to COVID-19. We can improve indoor air quality, which is an important element to prevent the spread of COVID-19, through energy efficiency and HVAC fixes in buildings.

Justin Koscher: Making a building more energy efficient allows it to protect the building’s occupants.

Keith Dennis: Due to COVID-19, people are at home more often, which means that they are using more energy at home, which they need to pay for (they did not need to pay for the commercial energy used at their workplace). This means that their energy bills are going up. How are people going to pay their energy bills? There are affordability issues. We need to find ways to reduce energy usage for these people.

 

Question: Should building improvements be part of the infrastructure discussion at the federal level and should we prioritize some over others?

David Nemtzow: From a DOE perspective: yes, to all your questions in several respects. If we use energy in a more efficient way, then the grid is more reliable and efficient. Building improvement work is often job intensive, and so through building improvements, jobs are created.

Justin Koscher: We have built most of the buildings that will be around for the next 50 years. Talking about existing building stock is important. Making public buildings, like federal buildings, more energy efficient can help save money for the government and for taxpayers. It can also create jobs and help deploy technology measures, bringing down their costs.

Becca Trietch: Improving the energy efficiency of buildings is important, because it can create societal impacts for our health and our wallets.

Keith Dennis: Investments in improving the energy efficiency of buildings should be considered not just at the component level, but should also be considered at the system-wide level.

 

Question: What should the regulatory decisions regarding time-of-use rates be? [time-of-use electricity rates change depending on the time of day and season]

David Nemtzow: Time-of-use rates are determined by states and utilities, and are not a federal policy, so the DOE has no view on the matter. Even though I, personally, would like to see more time-of-use rates, I don't think it's necessary. Price is not included in every decision made by consumers. Policies can reflect the value of energy during different times of the day. Renewable energy portfolio standards and energy efficiency portfolio standards can be modified without needing to tackle the issue of retail price.

Becca Trietch: Time-of-use rates are important, but demand response programs must be used in conjunction with them for them to work properly. However, there are barriers to demand response. First, there has to be the infrastructure in place, and not all customers have advanced meter infrastructure in their homes and businesses to enjoy the benefits of demand response. Second, technology has to be widely available. Not everyone has WiFi thermostats or battery storage devices in their homes. Access to the technology has to be optimized to reduce the costs.

Keith Dennis: It's a little too easy to oversimplify rates and to jump to them as a solution. First, we need to install demand-response technologies, but most Americans cannot afford such technologies (most Americans cannot afford an emergency involving more than $400). We need innovative financing mechanisms to help households adopt technologies. For example, a utility could provide a new water heater to a household (free of charge or at a discounted rate) in exchange for the right to use it as a demand-response tool. Moreover, not all utilities are the same: some have access to nuclear power, which costs the same throughout the year (so a time-of-use rate wouldn’t make sense).

Justin Koscher: From a commercial building perspective, there are policy options that can help building envelope retrofits. There are policy tools that can overcome accessibility barriers. One of these tools is the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program, which is a financing tool that supports energy efficiency retrofits, particularly in large commercial buildings.

 

Compiled by Miguel Yanez