California Commercial End-Use Survey
Updating the End-use Consumption in California's Commercial Sector
ADM Associates, Inc.
Recipient
Sacramento, CA
Recipient Location
8th
Senate District
8th
Assembly District
$12,970,317
Amount Spent
Completed
Project Status
Project Result
For 2020, ADM continued implementing the commercial survey. Surveys in the investor-owned utility (IOU) electric service territories were scheduled to be finalized during this time, coinciding with the expiration of EPIC funds. However, shelter in-place restrictions stemming from COVID-19 impacted the schedule and prevented the team from finishing on time. The CEC was able to get an extension for the EPIC funding and the team plans to finalize the surveys in early 2021. ADM started drafting the final report, focusing on the IOU results as a priority for EPIC. Once all survey work is concluded, ADM will submit a report with the final results for the entire statewide survey, including the publicly owned utility and gas service territories.
The Issue
A commercial end-use survey (CEUS) is used by energy researchers, including the Energy Commission's Demand Analysis Office, to calculate estimates used in energy forecast models, including: commercial floor space, annual whole building energy use, end-use fuel saturations, and annual whole-building hourly load profiles. Researchers at universities and national labs have indicated interest in having energy-use forecasts with more granularity, disaggregated to the local or regional service territory level. The end-use survey must be properly designed to fully support this level of granularity in order to increase the confidence of the results, and thus, the accuracy of the energy forecasts.
Project Innovation
The Energy Commission conducted a CEUS in 2006, since then the energy landscape in California has changed dramatically including the deployment of advanced energy efficiency and renewable generation technologies. This project is updating the CEUS while adding additional granularity by (1) developing a methodology to conduct a survey of the characteristics of commercial utility customers that will serve as a baseline and support the Energy Commission's work on the demand forecast, (2) implementing the survey, and (3) providing an unbiased, comprehensive analysis of the data. When completed, the CEUS will provide a clearer picture of commercial energy end-use which will allow better strategic targeting of policies and incentives which will help facilitate the commercial success and market adoption of technologies, strategies, and other innovations.
Project Benefits
The CEUS will provide a more disaggregated sampling of the state's end-uses in the commercial sector, than was historically collected. This level of granularity will lead to more accurate energy forecasts which can assist in keeping rates low as forecasts are used to determine infrastructure needs in long term procurement planning by the CPUC. Furthermore, the data can assist the state in achieving the energy efficiency reduction goals outlined in Senate Bill 350 by supporting the identification and accurate characterization of opportunities for demand-side management, energy efficiency program planning, load shifting, and demand response.
Affordability
This project can support reduced costs by leading to a more accurate demand forecast for the commercial sector. This can provide more certainty on base-line end-use consumption and provide a better input into the CPUC's Long-Term
Key Project Members
Sasha Baroiant
Subrecipients
DAV Energy Solutions, Inc.
Matrix Energy Service, Inc.
Match Partners
ADM Associates, Inc.
