Cadmus Aids Development of Department of Energy Protocols to Standardize Energy Savings Estimates
The Cadmus Group, Inc., is helping the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) develop voluntary procedures, or protocols, to standardize how government, industry, and energy-efficiency organizations estimate the energy savings provided by some of the most common residential and commercial building upgrades offered through ratepayer-funded initiatives in the United States.
Under a subcontract with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), Cadmus is managing the technical effort and helping ensure the resulting protocols meet DOE usability and validity goals. DOE is inviting stakeholders from the public sector, industry, and academia to participate in an online public review of these new protocols until July 27.
The common energy-efficiency upgrades that will be subject to the new protocols include energy-saving lighting, lighting controls, commercial air conditioning, and residential furnaces and boilers. (More information on the Uniform Methods Project is available at www.eere.doe.gov/ump).
Right now, a number of methods developed for energy efficiency program administrators and regulators are available to calculate energy savings. While they served their original function well, the methods yield differing and incomparable results—even for identical measures—in different programs and different jurisdictions. The inconsistent results, especially for the same measures, have limited the acceptance of reported energy savings, according to NREL.
The new voluntary protocols will help energy efficiency program administrators and local governments improve the objectivity, consistency, and transparency of energy savings data and help strengthen consumer confidence in the results expected from energy-efficiency upgrades.
The protocols are being developed by technical experts through collaboration with energy efficiency industry stakeholders, including major firms that perform the majority of evaluations in the United States.
About The Cadmus Group, Inc.
Cadmus (https://cadmusgroup.com) helps government, non-profit and corporate clients address critical challenges in the environmental, energy, and public health sectors. We provide an array of research and analytical services in the United States and abroad, specializing in solving complex problems that demand innovative, multidisciplinary thinking. Our major service areas are water, energy services, social marketing and market transformation, health policy and communications, green building, international development, and strategic environmental consulting. Many of our senior consultants are nationally recognized experts in their fields, and several serve on high-level U.S. government science advisory boards.
