Statewide LG EE Best Practices: Weekly Update

Here are your wEEkly updates:

1. AB 802 Workshop This Morning!: The California Energy Commission’s workshop to seek input on draft regulations for implementation of building energy use data access and public disclosure components of AB 802 is this morning! Get information to attend in person or by phone/online. The CEC presentation is now available through the same link.

2. FHA PACE Guidance Released: This week, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced clear guidance that will expand access to renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other home resiliency projects for American homeowners. The guidance, signaled last August by President Obama and the FHA, allows residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) assessments to interact with single family home mortgages secured by the FHA in the event of purchases, refinances, and loan modifications.

3. PACE Nation Webinar 7/26: Join PACENation on Tuesday, July 26th for the webinar "FHA's PACE Guidance Explained," to discuss HUD/FHA's recent residential PACE guidance and the White House's new initiative to broaden the scope of residential PACE. Panelists include Renew Financial CEO Cisco Devries, PACENation Executive Director David Gabrielson, and more.

4. PACE Draft Best Practices for Review from DOE: the U.S. Department of Energy has released a draft best practices document for residential PACE that focuses on best practices for program design, including protections to both consumers who voluntarily opt into PACE programs, and to lenders who hold mortgages on properties with PACE assessments; compatibility of PACE with other energy efficiency programs and services; and evaluation of program outcomes, including cost effectiveness, energy savings, and non-energy benefits such as improved health and comfort. The comment period for this document is open through August 19^th.

5. CPUC releases guidance on EE rolling portfolio business plans: Those of you that have been following the energy efficiency rolling portfolio process are familiar with the fact that the state’s EE funding Program Administrators are preparing business plans sharing the high-level strategy they will use to create EE programs to address different sectors’ needs in the coming years.  This week, the CPUC shared a 94-page guidance for these business plan filings.

6. CPUC Evaluation of RENs and LGPs: The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)’s consultants shared their draft research plans for assessing the impact of California’s two Regional Energy Networks (RENs) and its Local Government Partnerships (LGPs) in two webinars this week. The presentations shared in each are available and the public comment period has been extended to August 1^st.

7. New options for lighting EE compliance: The California Energy Commission approved the use of an optional compliance pathway for use in non-residential lighting alterations that trigger Title 24, Part 6. This is in addition to the pre-existing two compliance pathways. Learn more (and share with your buildings stakeholders!).

8. Updates to GreenPoint Rated Program: Hear from Build It Green on the new updates to the GreenPoint Rated Program in this recorded webinar. Public comments are welcome until 7/31.

9. Local Policies to Support Microgrids: Learn what local policies can support microgrids from former CPUC Analyst turned Minnesota PUC Director Chris Villareal – and get some great California (and national) examples.

10. California Cities Shine in $5 Million Energy Prize Competition: As shared by SEEC’s Institute for Local Government (ILG), learn how Berkeley, Chula Vista, Claremont, Davis, Fremont, Palo Alto, San Mateo and Sunnyvale are rallying their communities to complete their last year of competition for the Georgetown University Energy Prize.

11. Free ZNE Conference 8/19 in Downey: Verdical Group is hosting its 3rd Annual Net Zero Conference in Downey, CA at SoCal Gas’s Energy Resource Center on August 19th.

12. Presentation Proposing RCx, OBF, and HVAC Programming: Southern California Edison’s presentation from their 7/14 webinar on their proposed High Opportunity Programs or Projects (HOPPs) – including public buildings retro-commissioning (RCx), on-bill financing, and comprehensive commercial HVAC – is now available.

13. New Study on Data Center EE: Data centers are incredibly energy intensive – but a new study shows that some data centers are learning to slim their energy footprint.

14. Google Data Center Uses AI to Save: In recent months, the Alphabet Inc. unit put a DeepMind AI system in control of parts of its data centers to reduce power consumption by manipulating computer servers and related equipment like cooling systems – and is seeing some interesting results.

15. Seeking Water EE ordinance experience/interest: The Statewide Codes & Standards team has had a request from a city for resources to implement efficiency standards for greywater systems and drip irrigation microspray for trees & shrubs. Reach code options for water-energy issues is new territory, and the C&S team would appreciate hearing from any other local governments that are interested in this, or that have experience developing such standards. Please contact Jordan (jdecker@lgc.org) and Javier Mariscal (javier.mariscal@sce.com) if you are a local government and have feedback you can share.

16. Green Real Estate Interest Survey for Realtors: A number of local governments engage their builder, developer and realtor communities to connect on the value of EE. If you are connected to realtors in your jurisdiction, please help Build It Green distribute a survey to licensed realtors in California. The survey seeks their feedback on various green home topics, including a proposal to make green and energy efficiency features transparent on real estate listing services. You can forward the survey link to any realtor contacts: https://www.getfeedback.com/r/ys58KCHP.

17. Testing residential solar+storage: SolarCity and PG&E have announced a collaborative demonstration in the San Jose area to see how the coordinated use of solar smart inverters and behind the meter energy storage could provide enhanced benefits to the grid.

18. New report on solar+storage for critical infrastructure: A new report completed as part of the New York Solar Smart DG Hub-Resilient Solar Project shows a higher return on investment for solar+storage combinations for resiliency benefits in critical infrastructure.

19. Pollution Control Authority New Rules: the California Pollution Control Financing Authority (CPCFA), chaired by Treasurer John Chiang, has taken formal action to help large and small businesses in California keep costs low when financing waste management and recycling projects.

20. Job announcement: the City and County of San Francisco is hiring for a Distributed Energy Projects Manager! Learn more here.

As always, you can keep track of relevant events by connecting to the EE Events Calendar, and find more resources being added daily on the EECoordinator website – including past WEEkly Updates.

That’s all for this week!

Statewide LG EE Best Practices: Weekly Update

Here are your wEEkly updates:

1. ARB Request for Participation in Public Work Groups
   ARB is developing the Fiscal Year 2016-17 Funding Plan for the Low Carbon Transportation Investments and the Air Quality Investment Program. 18 public work groups will be used to discuss topics such as funding allocations, project and technology types, emission reduction targets, and overall goals for the category. If you would
   
2. CEC Request for Information Due February 10th
   The purpose of this Request for Information is to determine areas of readiness and planning activities for potential funding. Responses received, as well as staff research and public comments from the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program Investment Plan Advisory Committee workshops, will guide the development of the next solicitation that will utilize the Regional Alternative Fuel Readiness and Planning funding allocation.
   
3. New Podcast: Infinite Earth Radio
   Skeo, in association with LGC, launched a new weekly podcast committed to spreading ideas that lift up and revitalize marginalized neighborhoods and build great 21st century communities. Each week, Infinite Earth Radio features interviews with visionary civic leaders who are transforming the future so that you can hear about the latest sustainability initiatives and tools to bring these ideas to your community.
   
4. FHA Reduces Multifamily Housing Insurance Rates to Support Energy Efficiency
   The Federal Housing Administration announced a new plan to reduce multifamily insurance rates in order to encourage capital financing of affordable and energy-efficient apartments. The rate reduction will take effect on April 1, 2016, and will directly impact FHA's Multifamily Housing Programs and properties housing low- and moderate-income families and/or developments installing energy-efficient systems or buildings within federal energy guidelines.
   
5. Maintaining EV Charging Stations Uses Relatively Little Energy
   Today, there is roughly one public charger for every 10 EVs. In order to accelerate EV adoption, we need to reduce "range anxiety" by installing more charging stations. The good news is that the cost of EV charging has been found to be so nominal that it's insignificant when looking at commercial buildings' peak grid times.
   
6. New SEEC Website
   Today, a new and improved website will be launched for the Statewide Energy Efficiency Collaborative! The new site will continue to be your portal to the myriad of resources produced or collected by SEEC partners with a streamlined interface to keep you better informed of relevant news, events, and new resources.
   
7. Calendar of Energy-Related Events
   Please forward events to statewideenergycoordinator@lgc.org.
   

And that is all for this week!