1

RTF Small / Rural SubcommitteeQuarterly Meeting

Thursday, September 252:00 pm – 3:00 pm

2

Agenda

• Introductions [2:00 – 2:05pm]

• Measure Small/Rural Checklists [2:05 – 2:15pm]

• Mobile Home Decommissioning [2:15 – 2:35pm]

• Ideas for Remaining 2014 budget [2:35 – 2:50pm]

• Additional Discussion [2:50 – 3:00pm]

3

Recently Approved UES Measures – S/R Checklists

Please review checklists in advance of the meeting. At the meeting, Ryan will review individual checklists by request.

• July, 2014– Commercial Grocery Strip Curtains (Small Saver) measure checklist

• August, 2014– Residential: New Construction – Built Green Washington and Washington

Energy Star measure checklist• September, 2014

– Residential - Weatherization, Single Family –• Workbooks for SEEM calibration and measure assessment need to be cleaned and QC’ed

– Single Family Clothes Washer – updated savings and costs to be posted soon

4

Mobile Home Decommission

5

Mobile Homes - Motivation

Mobile homes problems:• Energy – high usage, weatherization not effective• Health/Safety – mold, lead, asbestos, temperature• Quality of life

Could we replace this stock with new manufactured homes?

Not cost-effective as a conservation measure alone• ~$3K - $8K for decommission• ~$30K - $80K for new home• ~1,000 – 8,000 kWh savings/year• (see Sept. 18, 2013 subcommittee presentation)

Could energy conservation programs partner with other funding organizations?

6

Mobile Homes - PopulationFrom RBSA MH report.

NEEA, “RESIDENTIAL BUILDING STOCK ASSESSMENT:MANUFACTURED HOME CHARACTERISTICS AND ENERGY USE”

7

Mobile Homes - Objectives1. Identify potential partner organizations• Existing programs• Strategies• Barriers(Darla)

2. Characterize the NW mobile home population• Population count • Decay rate of mobile homes(BPA/RTF CAT)

8

Mobile Homes – Darla Hailey

• The S/R Subcommittee contracted Darla Hailey to conduct scoping research on Mobile Home Decommissioning this summer.– recently completed Masters in Social Work from

University of Washington, Seattle– background in Manufactured Home sales– She has

• identified/contacted public and private agencies that could potentially partner with energy organizations.

• Identified existing programs and barriers to implementation

9

Mobile Homes - Methods• Online review of programs and organization

– ACEEE American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy– Champlain Housing Trust (CHT)– Family Housing Resources– Frontier Housing– Housing Preservation Grant*– Mobile Home Decommissioning & Replacement Report– Montana Mobile Home Decommissioning, Replacement and Rehab– NeighborWorks America– NeighborWorks Montana**– Next Step: Affordable Housing Done Right– rehome***Email communications**Interview

• Online literature review [see report appendix]

10

Mobile Homes - Findings• This has been done before

– Collaboration with • non-profit housing organizations• government departments• bank or mortgage company • decommissioning organization

– First, secure participation and funds from government agency (e.g., HUD)

– Then, recruit other collaborators for • decommissioning and recycling • access to financing• social services to home owners (walk them through the process)• manufacture of the homes

11

Mobile Homes - Findings• Programs tend to be small, achieve less than planned, and not

last long.– Montana and Oregon programs focused primarily on decommissioning

and replacement of individual mobile homes. – Initial goals: 20-25 homes replaced in first year – Actual counts: 2-5 in first year

• Utilities have not played a major role in these programs.– Conservation programs are focused on weatherization and appliances – Not cost effective (or even effective) to weatherize pre-HUD mobile

homes

12

Mobile Homes - Findings• Barrier: Homeowners must be low income AND still qualify

for a mortgage.– Resident needs to secure loan for new home– Financing options are often out of reach

• Barrier: Resident needs to own site (i.e., not RV park)– Space in mobile home parks is leased, not owned– Fortunately, only 26% of U.S. mobile homes are in parks– Remainder on private land, typically owned by homeowner – Efforts to convert parks to co-ops

• Enables better financing options• ROCUSA provides funding for manufactured home owners to purchase

their parks collectively. – Next Step then negotiates factory-direct home sales

13

Mobile Homes - Findings

• Existing Programs– Montana Department of Commerce - Decommission and

replace– Flowing Wells (Tucson, AZ) – w/ Fair Housing Program has

replaced 7 pre-1976 homes so far.– Frontier Housing (Appalachia)– New Hampshire Community Loan Fund - Funding for co-op

acquisitions– reHOME: Curry County, Oregon - Decommission and

replace• Key issues

– Lengthy process from decommission to replacement– Financing: land, owner lacking assets, high interest rates

14

Mobile Homes - Findings

• Potential partner organizations for NW utilities – Federal government

• Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)• Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)• United States Department of Agriculture - Rural (USDA)

– Next Steps– NeighborWorks America– Local or regional low income-housing non-profits– Manufactured homes manufacturer– Appliance companies– Private foundations: Ford, Singing for Change, US

Bancorp Foundation

15

Mobile Homes – Next Steps• Arrange meetings with implementers of current and past programs

– What made your program successful?– What barriers limited your program’s success?– Why did you program end?– What advice can you offer to utilities interested in creating multi-agency

programs?• Map out what program would provide. For example,

– co-op-erize MH parks – funding– lending support– decommissioning– factory direct purchasing

• Seek co-funders

• Start with easier niche to establish infrastructure and demonstrate savings (Christopher Dymond, NEEA)

16

Mobile Homes – Next Steps• Meeting on October 6 amongst regional stakeholders to discuss expanding the reach of

Oregon Solution’s ‘ReHome Oregon’ project. • Organized by

– ReHome Orgeon – PNGC Power (Margaret Ryan)– Coos-Curry Electric Co-op

• Attendees include – ODOE – USDA – local banking – CAP agencies – BPA (Mark Johnson) – NEEA (Christopher Dymond)

• Details– In Salem, OR at the PUC– Monday, October 6th

– Lunch at 11:45, Meeting from 1pm to 4pm

• Would someone else from the Subcommittee like to attend?

17

Remaining 2014 Work

18

Ideas for Remaining 2014 Budget• Unallocated funds in 2014 work plan – can we identify a valuable

small/rural project?• Several requested measures are already offered as BPA qualified

measures [see additional slides].• Wind turbine control room measures• VFDs for centrifugal pumps• Research into S/R measures in other regions• Other?

Note that the Proposed 2015 RTF Work Plan includes funds ($30,000 for Contract RFP) for the S/R Subcommittee.

19

Ideas for Remaining 2014 Budget

Wind turbine control room measures• Spoke with Virginia Harman (Glacier Electric)• Not much potential: – a single small control room will control many turbines.– not much load in these rooms– Some probably already have controls for conservation– Virginia reached out to turbine owners about interest

• no reply

20

Ideas for Remaining 2014 BudgetVFDs for centrifugal irrigation pumps• Spoke with Erik Boyer/Dick Stroh (BPA)• Centrifugal irrigation pumps are most often not good candidates for VFDs.

Typically:– used for canal water and booster pumps, not wells– have relatively flat performance curves (pressure vs flow rate)– used (by design) in applications where head pressure doesn’t change much, but flow

rate does– In these applications, pumps are already operating at relatively high efficiency – VFDs

introduce drive losses, but little or no efficiency gains. – For turbine pump in these applications, switching to centrifugal pump may be more

effective than turbine + VFD.• If head requirement varies significantly VFDs can make sense.

– For example, center pivot on a slope– Vigilante Electric Coop. has had several projects like this, not common elsewhere– Best as a custom measure

• Thomas Elzinga (CPI), who had suggested this measure, mostly agreed with this, but will discuss with RTF CAT in more detail.– We may discuss this more for 2015 work plan

21

Ideas for Remaining 2014 Budget

Research into S/R measures in other regions• Subcommittee has expressed interest in funding

scoping research• Proposed process:– Request for Information (RFI) to solicit approaches– Chairs draft request for proposals (RFP), informed by

RFI responses.– Subcommittee reviews RFP– Council posts RFP– Work to be completed by March 31, 2015 as

required by 2014 budget/work plan.

22

Ideas for Remaining 2014 Budget

Other ideas?

23

Additional Discussion

• [ ]

24

Additional Slides:

BPA Qualified Measures

25

BPA Qualified Measures (July 30 email to Subcommittee)

RTF Small Rural Subcommittee - As discussed on our last Subcommittee call (July 10), BPA's program offering extends beyond RTF approved measures: it includes several BPA qualified measures as well. Many of these BPA qualified measures may be of interest to Small Rural utilities.

Full details on all measures, including eligibility criteria and reporting requirements, are provided in the BPA Implementation Manual:http://www.bpa.gov/Energy/N/pdf/April-2014_Implementation_Manual_FINAL.pdf Utilities can contact their BPA Energy Efficiency Representative (EER) or Rick Hodges (rshodges@bpa.gov) for more information.

26

BPA Qualified Measures (July 30 email to Subcommittee)

Commercial:http://www.bpa.gov/Energy/N/commercial/docs/Commercial_Brochure.pdf

Note that commercial measures include:• unitary AC equipment• advanced rooftop control unit retrofit• DHP for small (<20,000 sq ft) facilities• HP conversions and upgrades• web-enabled programmable thermostats• windows in residential-style buildings under 5,000 sq ft• heat pump water heaters• demand controlled kitchen ventilation• electric fryers• engine block heater

Also, BPA is working on small commercial weatherization measures, which they hope to have ready for the October implementation manual.

27

BPA Qualified Measures (July 30 email to Subcommittee)

Residential:http://www.bpa.gov/Energy/N/residential/Res_Brochure_Updated_Draft.pdf

Note that residential measures include:• Pipe Insulation• DHP for SF with forced air furnace• DHP for MF with forced air furnace• Insulated exterior doors

28

BPA Qualified Measures (July 30 email to Subcommittee)

Additional information on Industrial and Agricultural programs are available on the BPA website: Industrial Programs:http://www.bpa.gov/Energy/N/industrial/index.cfm

Agricultural Programs:http://www.bpa.gov/Energy/N/agriculture/index.cfmIncludes VFDs for irrigation pumps up to 500 HP