

Title | Spatio-temporal impacts of a utility’s efficiency portfolio on the distribution grid |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2020 |
Authors | Jessica Granderson, Samuel Fernandes, Samir Touzani, Chih-Cheng Lee, Eliot Crowe, Margaret Sheridan |
Journal | Energy |
Volume | 212 |
Issue | 118669 |
Keywords | advanced metering infrastructure, AMI, Demand Side Management, dsm, EE, energy efficiency, Fractional savings, fs, M&V, Measurement and verification, Relative fractional savings, RFS, t&d, Transmission and distribution |
Abstract | Energy Efficiency has historically focused on delivering savings as a means to offset growth in energy supply. Today’s growing emphasis on decarbonization of the energy supply is driving renewables adoption and increased interest in electrification. As a result, energy efficiency is being assessed not just in its ability to offset load growth, but also for its ability to alleviate location-specific constraints on transmission and distribution infrastructure. This work demonstrates that advanced measurement and verification modeling techniques can be used to estimate the spatio-temporal impact of a portfolio of energy efficiency programs, relative to the distribution grid. It extends measurement-based methods to an entire Demand Side Management portfolio and uses a single model to predict annual as well as seasonal building energy use with near-zero bias. In addition, new metrics are introduced to assess grid level spatio-temporal impacts of energy efficiency. The advanced measurement and verification modeling technique was applied at three levels of customer account grouping: a proxy for the utility’s territory-wide distribution grid; the substation level; and the feeder level. The results show that the utility’s energy efficiency program portfolio delivers savings of over 12% at the proxy total level, with substation and feeder level savings ranging from 0.4%-26%, and -5%-42% respectively. These savings had a measurable impact of 1.0%-1.4% on the energy used at these locations in the grid. This work provides a methodological foundation that offers potential to connect efficiency with distribution planning, carrying implications for non-wires alternatives and targeted delivery of efficiency programs. |
DOI | 10.1016/j.energy.2020.118669 |