Statewide LG EE Best Practices: Weekly Update

Here are your wEEkly updates:

Peer-to-Peer Requests

Triple-Bottom-Line Accounting
A local government agency has requested information on cities and counties that practice triple-bottom-line or sustainable accounting. If your city or county has implemented triple-bottom-line accounting, or if you have any related resources, please let me know and I will get you in contact with this agency.

News and Opportunities

California Approves First US Energy Efficiency Standards for Computers
The new standards, approved by California's Energy Commission, requires most computers to draw less power while idle. Laptops are only required to see a slight reduction in power draw since they're already designed to be energy efficient. But only 6% of desktops currently meet the commission's standards. On average, noncompliant desktops will have to reduce their idle power draw by about 30% by 2019 and by about 50% by 2021, the commission says.

An Update on California's Distributed Energy Leadership
In a unanimous decision yesterday, California regulators created a new financial incentive pilot that encourages utilities to invest in DERs instead of more expensive traditional grid investments.

Microgrids Continue to Progress - With Some Bumps in the Road
Microgrids increasingly are being seen as a hedge against grid failure and as a way to more efficiently harness renewable resources. However, there is uncertainty for the future of microgrids as they grow at different rates in different areas and with potential decreases in research and development with the new Administration.

NYC Hospitals Reduce Energy Use by 10%
Transitioning to LEDs, solar panels, upgrading air handling units, replacing boilers, and steam trap replacement have been the common projects that enabled hospitals to reduce energy use.

RFP: Sustainable Communities Planning Grant and Incentives Program: Best Practices Pilot
The Strategic Growth Council in partnership with the Office of Planning and Research is soliciting proposals for an effort to support local land use planning related to climate and the State's statutory planning priorities. The program funding in the amount of $250,000 will be available for applicants to apply for up to $50,000. These grants will support the development and/or implementation of a specific portion of a land use plan, land protection or management practice, or development project. Proposals due January 11, 2017.

Job Opportunity: Energy and Water Coordinator, County of San Luis Obispo
The County of San Luis Obispo Department of Public Works is seeking an innovative and experienced individual who is committed to work as part of a team in delivering a broad range of energy-related projects at County facilities. The position covers a wide range of duties, such as energy monitoring and reporting to researching and implementing program/projects in the County's EnergyWise Plan. Applications due December 29, 2016.

Calendar
Click the Calendar link to view all upcoming events.

1/25-1/26 (Sacramento) California Climate Change Symposium 2017
This forum aims to share cutting-edge research addressing the impacts of climate change on the state to inform the state's strategies and policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to develop programs to safeguard California from a changing climate. Early-bird registration ends today, December 16th.

2/2/17 (St. Louis, MO) New Partners for Smart Growth Conference
Early-bird registration has been extended to December 16th  for the 2017 New Partners for Smart Growth Conference. This conference is the nation's largest smart growth and sustainability event and has been named one of 12 conferences not to miss by Planetizen. Early Bird registration ends today, December 16th.

3/16-3/19 (Yosemite National Park) Yosemite Policymakers Conference
Join mayors, city council members, county supervisors, city managers, and high-level department heads for the 26th Annual Yosemite Policymakers Conference. This popular conference always features a timely and inspirational program designed to provide the tools and support policymakers need to implement innovative solutions to address society's most pressing challenges. This year's conference will be no different with its focus on sustaining our progress and protecting the American dream.

5/5/17 (Long Beach) The Business of Local Energy Symposium 2017
The Center for Climate Protection along with the Local Government Commission and the Local Government Sustainable Energy Coalition is offering their third Business of Clean Energy Symposium to convene government, business, and community leaders to accelerate California's shift to a clean energy economy and to exchange ideas about Community Choice Energy programs. Save the date - registration will open in January.

​Resources and Reports

2017 Building Intelligence Predictions
Podcast on building intelligence to accelerate savings, equity growth, occupant satisfaction and the arrival of smart, connected cities in 2017.

Re-Assessment of Net Energy Production and GHG Emissions Avoidance After 40 Years of Photovoltaics Development
This report shows strong downward trends of environmental impact of photovoltaic production, following the experience of curve law, and shows a break-even between the cumulative disadvantages and benefits of photovoltaics, for both energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, occurs between 1997 and 2018 depending on photovoltaic performance and model uncertainties.

The Benefits of Solar + Storage for Commercial and Public Buildings
A combined solar + storage system can firm and smooth the energy used onsite, reducing demand charge risk due to solar intermittency, and results in more reliable reduction of energy and demand charge-related electricity expenses. Additionally, a combined solution can enhance the resilience of a building's power supply, a key consideration for critical facilities in the face of increasingly common power outages in some areas.

The Challenge of Decarbonizing the U.S. Power Sector: Encouraging Innovation and Aligning Stakeholder Interests
This working paper describes current U.S. power sector trends and relevant environmental goals, ways that technology innovation could proceed or be interrupted, and three emerging low- and zero-carbon technologies generally considered leading options for meeting the decarbonization challenges. It concludes with ideas from a range of experts to meet GHG reduction goals and accelerate innovation to advance low-carbon generation.

 

And that's all for this week! 

Statewide LG EE Best Practices: Weekly Update

Here are your wEEkly updates:

Peer-to-Peer Requests

EVSE Installation
If you have any information on vendors that install EV charging stations at no charge, or on any opportunities that can help offset the cost of installation, please get in touch with me at jkim@lgc.org. This particular city is considered a disadvantaged community and is interested in full installation of 22 charging stations.

Community Based Social Marketing Methods
If you have information you can share on community based social marketing methods that a city staff can implement in his offices to help reduce energy use, please contact met at jkim@lgc.org.

​News and Opportunities

​Governor Jerry Brown Signs Major Climate Bills
Gov. Brown signed into law on Wednesday a sweeping expansion of California's GHG emissions standards, requiring the state to reduce emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.

​How Cities and Counties are Showing the Way of Climate Action
This GreenBiz article highlights Climate Leadership Awardees who reflect effective collaboration among cities and counties, which includes WRCOG, SBCCOG and LA County.​
Job Opportunity: Statewide Local Government Energy Efficiency Best Practices Coordinator
The Local Government Commission is seeking to fill the Coordinator position with a highly motivated and knowledgeable individual to support local government energy efficiency efforts throughout the state. Please feel free to contact me at jkim@lgc.org if you have any questions.

Job Opportunity: Climate and Energy Manager, University of San Diego​
This is a full-time, temporary, benefit based position with an anticipated assignment end date of 12/31/2020. Closing date: 10/2/2016.

Calendar

9/13 (San Francisco/webinar): Quarterly EM&V Stakeholder Meeting
This meeting will include:
CPUC and PA Update on EM&V Budgets and Activities
Waterfall Graphics and New Web-based Tools
Lightning Metering study update
Update on LED Lab Test
CA Comprehensive Analysis - developing an effectiveness metric for nonresidential EE programs
PG&E's Single Family Home Upgrade Program Process Evaluation
SDG&E Cannabis Agriculture Energy Demand Study Final Report
Update on Inclusion (support for disadvantaged workers) Studies

9/21 (webinar): Evaluation of Residential Behavior-Based Programs
This webinar will provide an introduction to documenting the energy savings associated with behavior-based programs and examples of how different jurisdictions are addressing behavior-based program evaluation.

10/12-10/14 (Denver): Getting to Zero National Forum
This event is dedicated to zero net energy (ZNE) buildings where attendees will share perspectives on the growth of ZNE, discuss policies driving new projects, engage in best practices for successful outcomes and collaborate on opportunities for ZNE to transform the built environment.

Resources and Reports

Cool Roofs
The Cost-Effectiveness Study for Cool Roofs FINAL Report for All Climate Zones, prepared by the California Statewide Utility Codes and Standards Program, provides information on product cost, energy savings, cost-effectiveness and urban heat island mitigation to support minimum reach code requirements for residential and nonresidential cool roofs for jurisdictions in all climate zones.

Microgrids
Presentations from the September 6th California Energy Commission Staff Workshop Microgrids - Why are Customers Choosing Microgrids and How are they Working? are now available online.

Green Banks
A new report from ACEEE reviews the progress of 10 green banks and related financing entities to understand how they are working in specific market sectors and to identify strategies and lessons learned, with a special focus on energy efficiency.

Coordinator Resources
Browse the Coordinator website for more resources on a variety of energy efficiency related topics. If there are topics that you would like to see added or further developed, please reach out to me at jkim@lgc.org.

That's all for this week!

Statewide LG EE Best Practices: Weekly Update

Here are your wEEkly updates:

1. Coordinator transition (and job announcement!): For those that missed it last week: I will be leaving my position as your Statewide Local Government Energy Efficiency Best Practices next week, and so this is my last set of WEEkly Updates to you. In the interim, the Updates will continue via Julia Kim (jkim@lgc.org). It’s been a real pleasure working to connect you all with best practices, resources – and to each other! LGC is actively recruiting to fill the Coordinator position, posted here – please share widely with friends and colleagues.

2. Joint Agency Microgrid Commercialization Workshop 9/6: The CEC, CPUC, and CAISO will conduct a workshop on September 6th to learn about California customers’ microgrid implementation strategies and challenges with a focus on energy resiliency, renewable integration, costs/benefits performance, lessons learned, how cyber-security is being addressed and efforts to commercialize microgrids in California.

3. Joint IOU Webinar on LGP Project Reporting 9/7: PG&E, SCE, SCG and SDG&E will jointly host a statewide webinar 9/7 to review improvements to semi-annual data reporting and communication related to Local Government Partnership activities supporting the California Long Term Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan. Local Government Partnership reporting leads, and Local Governments conducting Strategic Plan support activity as part of a Local Government Partnership, are encouraged to attend.

4. Cap and Trade $$ Deal Passes Legislature: In the final hours of the legislative session, a last minute deal to release cap and trade funding was passed this week for transportation, housing, green space, and low/no-emissions vehicles.
5. New EE Municipal Policy in Santa Barbara County: Congratulations to Santa Barbara County, who has just passed a comprehensive new “County of Santa Barbara Energy Efficiency Standards Policy for County Owned and Leased Facilities” covering staff training, energy metering and reporting, zero net energy requirements for new construction, and more.

6. Updates from the CAEECC: Read the latest updates from the California Energy Efficiency Coordinating Committee, a committee that engages interested stakeholders in the process that energy efficiency ratepayer funding Program Administrators (PG&E, SCE, SCG, SDG&E, BayREN, SoCalREN, and MCE) are going through to plan energy efficiency goals, strategies, and programming under the new rolling portfolio cycle. (Not familiar with the CAEECC, or need background? FAQs and other resources are available.)

7. EE Compliance Resources: The California Energy Commission (CEC) has released Acceptance Test Technician Certification Provider (ATTCP) and Home Energy Rating System (HERS) reference cards, designed to quickly identify when acceptance testing or verification is required and how to find approved providers.

8. $$ for Air Sensor Best Practices, Tribal Clean Energy, and More: Check out the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s September newsletter for state and local governments for new funding announcements and climate change resources.

9. CEC Funding Announcement for Existing Building EE Innovations: The California Energy Commission (CEC) has recently released a $20 million solicitation for innovative large-scale development and demonstration projects that reduce electricity consumption in existing buildings. The solicitation is designed to accelerate the adoption of pre-commercial electricity saving technologies for existing government buildings; colleges, universities and K-12 schools; privately owned buildings; and facilities on military installations.

10. Attention emerging tech innovators: Know great cleantech innovators? Prospect Silicon Valley (ProspectSV) and its partners are seeking pre-commercial products and solutions from global clean technology innovators for energy efficiency, energy recovery and renewable energy solutions for potential inclusion in two state-funded demonstrations in San Francisco.

11. EE Facility Manager Decision Making: Looking for compelling resources to engage facility managers on energy efficiency? A new report from Ecova’s 2016 Energy and Sustainability Outlook Survey offers insight into how Facility Managers are prioritizing energy, water, and waste efficiency initiatives in light of the forces at work in today’s market. Learn how awareness of low/no-cost savings opportunities, and projections of energy pricing, are playing key roles in this article from Environmental Leader.

12. New EV research, news from other states: New studies from Navigant project that light duty plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) will make up half of the global EV market by 2024 – and that pairing deployment with smart grid technologies is critical. Get more coverage of these reports, and EV news from other states from UtilityDive.

13. Job Announcement: The San Diego International Airport is hiring for a highly-motivated individual to join its Environmental Affairs Department as an Environmental Specialist.

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. SB 350 Barriers Study: A California Energy Commission workshop on low-income barriers to accessing the energy efficiency and renewable energy goals of SB 350 is going on this morning!

2. San Joaquin Valley Clean Transportation Summit 10/19: Save the Date! The San Joaquin Valley Clean Transportation Summit, featuring a full day of speakers and breakout sessions on electric vehicles, natural gas alternatives, and more, will be held October 19th.

3. Joint Agency Workshop 8/23 on 2030 Target Scoping Plan: California Energy Commission (CEC), California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), and California Air Resources Board (ARB) are jointly hosting a public workshop on the process to update the 2030 Target Scoping Plan.

4. Workshop 8/29, Electricity Reliability in SoCal: The California Energy Commission will conduct a workshop to review efforts to ensure electricity reliability in Southern California resulting from the closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (San Onofre) and impending retirement of several fossil generating units using once-through cooling (OTC) technologies.

5. Vehicle Technology Program Review 8/22: CEC Commissioner Janea Scott, Lead Commissioner on Transportation of the California Energy Commission, will conduct a workshop to discuss the use of metrics within the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program (ARFVTP).

6. New EPA Portfolio Manager Feature Helps Buildings Save: The EPA has launched a waste and materials tracking feature in its Energy Star Portfolio Manager, which is a free benchmarking and tracking tool for commercial building owners and managers. (New to Portfolio Manager? Check out resources here.)

7. Sustainability, Prosperity, and Security: A new book from United States military leadership, “The New Grand Strategy: Restoring America’s Prosperity, Security and Sustainability in the 21st Century,” tells the story of a grand strategy, born within the Pentagon, to recapture America’s greatness at home and abroad by elevating sustainability as a strategic imperative.

8. USDOE Awards $ for Local Data-Driven Energy Planning: In support of cities’ efforts to reduce energy waste and greenhouse gas emissions and increase the use of energy efficiency technologies, the Energy Department selected three projects this week to help cities integrate energy analysis and data into their strategic decision making across all clean energy sectors. Learn more about the projects and the findings through its “Cities Leading through Energy Analysis and Planning (Cities-LEAP)” program.

9. New Green Leasing and Commercial Real Estate EE Resources: Looking to engage and support the commercial real estate sector in your jurisdiction as they explore the value of energy efficiency in real estate? The Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) are arming the commercial real estate industry with a new set of tools that enable tenants to more effectively seek out and secure high-performance spaces that are in line with the tenant’s organizational goals, objectives, and budgets. (Get more resources on green leasing uncovered through recent local government asks.)

10. New York Joins California’s 50% by ‘30 Goal: Last week saw an order by the New York Public Service Commission requiring that 50 percent of the state’s electricity must from clean, renewable sources like solar and wind power by 2030 – this makes nearly one-fifth of the country’s population in pursuit of a 50% renewable goal.

11. Cities Consider Increasing Renewables: While on renewables: the cities of Solana Beach and La Mesa were in the news this week as they weigh using a community choice aggregation (CCA) model to increase their jurisdictions’ use of renewable energy and lower their carbon footprints. (More on CCAs here.)

12. CEC Blueprint Newsletter: Did you know that the California Energy Commission documents the most common questions to their Energy Code Hotline, and answers them in their Blueprint newsletter? The Blueprint newsletter for July/August is out, and provides guidance on a number of key issues – including new lighting compliance options, pipe insulation, solar ready requirements for single family homes, air-to-water heat pump systems, and more. Share with your building departments and other building efficiency stakeholders in your community!

13. Energy Efficient Codes Make Financial Sense: “Average homeowners are the biggest beneficiaries of more energy efficient building codes, says Daniel Bressett of the Alliance to Save Energy. Homeowners consistently state their preference for energy efficiency features, a point made again in the housing survey conducted by the National Association of Home Builders.” Get more coverage and resources for explaining the financial value of energy efficiency in this newsletter piece from Zero Energy Project.

14. Cutting Poverty through EE and More: Addressing income inequality and affordability is a central and growing issue for many local governments. A new policy paper, the “Urban Opportunity Agenda,” from the Center for Neighborhood Technology proposes that poverty can be cut through simply cutting core household expenses – including energy.

15. Model Released to Pursue EE, ZNE: A tool to model the time dependent value (TDV) of energy for use in planning for the 2019 energy code’s steps toward zero net energy is now available on the CEC’s website.

16. Airport Achieves Carbon Neutrality: The Dalllas Fort Worth Airport is the first in the United States to achieve carbon neutrality! Learn how they did it and more here.

17. Microgrid Conference: The Microgrids Convergence Conference will be held October 25th-26th in San Mateo and will consist of two, unique, content-rich days. Learn about conference content, speakers, and more.

18. Microgrid Financing: Microgrids Conference event sponsors are offering a free recording of the webinar "Financing Microgrid Distributed Energy Efficiency Solutions."

19. CEC Workshop on Title 20 Appliance Efficiency: For sharing with your jurisdiction’s retailers and businesses; The California Energy Commission will host a webinar on August 17th, 2016 presenting focused on the needs of retailers, wholesalers, importers, and internet vendors.

20. Vehicle/Grid Demonstration Funding: The Pre–Application Workshop Presentation and WebEx Recording for GFO–16–303, Advanced Vehicle–Grid Integration Research and Demonstration, is now available on the California Energy Commission (CEC)’s website.

21. Job announcement: San Luis Obispo has extended the deadline to apply for its open Senior Energy Planner position! 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 is all for this week!

Statewide LG EE Best Practices: Weekly Update

Here are your wEEkly updates:

1. Resilience Webinar 8/4: Comprehensive plans and local land use codes and ordinances drive much of the climate resilience related decision making at the local level, and thus is one key target for climate integration. Learn more about tying codes and ordinances to resilience goals in this Climate Solutions University (CSU) webinar.

2. ARB Public Workshops beginning 8/9:  The California Air Resources Board (ARB) invites you to participate in public workshops to discuss updates to ARB’s Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEP) Policy to benefit disadvantaged communities. (A SEP is an environmentally beneficial project that a person subject to an enforcement action voluntarily agrees to undertake in settlement of the action and to offset a portion of a civil penalty.)

3. CPUC Lighting Research Plan Webinar 8/1: The 2015 Upstream and Residential Downstream Lighting Program Impact Evaluation Research Plan has been posted to the CPUC’s public document site for review and comment, and a webinar to review will be held on August 1^st.

4. CPUC Behavioral Program Research Plan Webinar 8/1: The Draft Impact Evaluation Research Plan for the Program Administrators 2015 behavior programs (home energy and home utility reports) has been posted to the CPUC’s public document site for review and comment, and a webinar to review will be held on August 1^st.

5. FHA’s PACE Guidance Reviewed: In case you missed this week’s webinar explaining last week’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announcement of clear guidance that will expand access to PACE program renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other home resiliency projects, a webinar recording is now available.

6. CPUC EE Program Review: the final version of the “2015 Custom Impact Research Plan Addendum – Sampling – through Q4 2015” has been posted on the CPUC energy efficiency public documents website. The comment period on this document will last until August 8^th.

7. Study Reviews EE Behavioral Programs Correcting Market Failure: Energy efficiency—using less energy to provide an equivalent level of service—is part of the climate policy portfolio. Market failures might warrant encouraging energy efficiency, but an important justification comes from the realm of behavioral economics: that people erroneously underinvest in it. This creates difficulties for policy evaluation, which assumes that people’s choices, including energy efficiency investments, reflect actual preferences. Continue reading the abstract (and more) of this new study from Resources for the Future.

8. DR and Storage to Improve Air Quality: A new study proposes storage and demand response to avoid extra air pollution while meeting peak demand – and tests their framework using data from California’s grid.

9. New Los Angeles Microgrid: The Port of Los Angeles will be the site of a $27 million solar+storage pilot program that aims to show how carbon-free energy solutions can help make marine terminal operations more efficient and have less environmental impact.

10. 15-Second “Flash” Charging EV Buses Launched:  In Switzerland, a new line of buses can be topped off in a few seconds and fully charged in minutes.

11. $4.5 Billion for EV Innovation: The White House has also announced $4.5 Billion in loan guarantees for EV charging innovation. Considering electric buses in your own fleet, and want to understand what this would do to your energy efficiency? Learn more about electric vehicle infrastructure deployment planning.

12. Wave Technology Investment: More on new technologies: Oregon State University’s Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center and CalWave are competing to build a wave energy test site – and the US Department of Energy said that it will release up to $40 million for the effort.

13. EE Internationally: new figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) show world energy intensity has steadily decreased by nearly 33 percent in the last 15 years – and credits national and subnational energy policies as a major contributing factor.

14. New tool tracks electric supply, demand and recovery: The EIA has also launched its Electric System Operating Data Tool, which provides nearly real-time data, analysis, and visualizations of hourly, daily, and weekly electricity supply and demand on a national and regional level and for all of the 66 electric systems that make up the U.S. electric grid.

15. Job announcement: the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is hiring for a Commercial Development Consultant! 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. 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. Events today: the CEC is holding a workshop in Sacramento and by WebEx for public input on the proposed scope and schedule of the Energy Commission’s Senate Bill 350 (SB350) Barriers Study. The study focuses on barriers to access for low-income customers and disadvantaged communities to energy efficiency and renewable energy investments.

2. Event reminder: if you haven’t registered for this year’s SEEC Forum, do so before registration fills up! The 7^th Annual SEEC Forum will be held in Riverside June 15^th-16^th with two full days of sessions led by cities, counties, state, utility, and energy representatives, held at no-cost to local governments.

3. ACEEE’s Summer Study: Registration is open for ACEEE's 19th biennial Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings in Pacific Grove, California, August 21-26.

4. Conference: the Next Generation Energy System: Greentech Media will host their Grid Edge World Forum in San Jose, California, June 21-23. Click here to register.

5. Demand response webinar 6/9: Learn from EnergyHub about how to create a best-in-class “Bring Your Own Thermostat” (BYOT) demand response program with high participation rates in their upcoming webinar.

6. Microgrids webinar 6/16: Learn more the why, when, and how for optimal microgrid deployment in this upcoming webinar.

7. Online office hours 6/14 and 6/28: Looking for support on SEEC’s ClearPath greenhouse gas inventory and climate action planning tool? Online office hours are scheduled for Tuesday 6/14 and 6/28 at 11am.

8. Energy data access survey reminder: local governments have a special opportunity to provide input on their experiences accessing energy data for climate action planning to the state’s Energy Data Access Committee. This survey will be closing soon – please provide your experiences to help guide data access policies.

9. Local government action on Climate Action Plans: Congratulations to San Bernardino’s Victorville for passing its climate action plan, and to Sebastapol for adopting 13 goals from the region’s “Climate Action 2020” plan. (For more on climate action plans, click here.)

10. New funding for climate change resilience: PG&E has just announced plans to award $1 million to support local climate change resilience planning. Two grants of $100,000 will be awarded per year for five years beginning in 2017.

11. Funding reminder: deadlines are coming up for applications to federal funds for local pollution source reduction ($2.2M due 6/6), disaster and flood mitigation ($289M due 6/15),  community resilience ($4.5M due 6/20),  HUD choice neighborhoods ($120M due 6/28), and more.

12. EE and Solar Save California $192 Million? Hear from Greentech Media about how the great work in our cities and counties is reducing the need for new investment.

13. The value of cool roofs: Just in time for summer: a new study has reviewed the potential for cool roofs and green roofs to reduce urban heat island effect and improve air quality in the City of Chicago. For more on cool roofs in California, click here.

14. EE for realtors: A two-day training event for National Association of Realtor (NAR) Green Designation will be held in Yolo County June 14^th-15^th, connecting realtors with the value proposition of green homes and how to sell to home buyers increasingly interested in high home efficiency and performance. This event has no registration fee thanks to support from PG&E.  Please share with your real estate community! (Looking for more resources on the business case for efficient buildings? Click here.)

15. Green lease resources: I recently put out an ask to the network regarding green lease resources on behalf of several interested local governments – and received a number of great recommendations of resources. I’ve added them to the EECoordinator.info website – search green lease to review. Or, check out a new report prepared for the Port of San Diego on sustainable incentives best practices.

16. More on green leases and green tenants: Or, check out Portland’s Green Tenant Improvement Guide, a publication by the DOE looking at the feasibility of energy efficiency in separate tenant spaces, or this 2015 EPA publication sharing case studies of how landlords and tenants have overcome split incentive and other challenges to achieve energy efficient, high-performing buildings.

17. EE through building user feedback: check out how UC Davis is reducing building energy waste and improving student comfort through a new app.

18. ZNE in a Sunnyvale Racquetball Facility: Learn in this new video about how architects, developers and builders took a windowless, concrete “tilt-up” racquetball facility and retrofitted it to a desirable, zero net energy (ZNE) commercial property cost-effectively, repurposing nearly 95% of materials and creating a comfortable work environment.

19. New developments in Zero Net Energy: from Hayward’s new commitments to ZNE in municipal buildings, to Palo Alto’s work toward a new reach code, to Lancaster’s award of $1.47M for conversion to ZNE, local governments are acting on ZNE across the state. Learn more here.

20. Electric vehicles as a Distributed Energy Resource (DER): two new online videos on electric vehicles came out in the last week: learn from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and SDG&E about best practices in deploying electric vehicles as a distributed energy resource.

21. SCE’s Charge Ready Program: for those in Edison territory, a new video provides an overview of new electric vehicle offerings.

22. Job announcements: the Local Government Commission is hiring for a Energy Program Manager! Learn more here. LGC is also hiring for an IT Assistant – 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. Updates from the EE Coordinating Committee: for meeting updates, reminders on comment deadlines, and a change in schedule for business plan development, see this week’s updates from the CA EE Coordinating Committee (CAEECC).  For more background on the Committee and how they facilitate local government and other stakeholder feedback on how EE funds are administered, check out the CAEECC website or take a look at this FAQ.

2. Communicating on EE: Need help communicating the value of EE in your community? This GreenBiz excerpt from the book Energy is Human describes some best practices for rethinking how we talk about efficiency.

3. Need EE Code Trainings? Did you know you can request a Title 24 Part 6 Essentials training be brought to a location of your choice? You can – and it’s free of charge – click here for details.

4. Over $457M in Funding Available: more than $457 million is available at the federal level for local and tribal government climate and energy activities: including pre-disaster mitigation, community resiliency, and air pollution reduction.

5. Keeping EE Affordable: As we’re seeing more and more about how efficient buildings are more valuable buildings (due to their lower cost of ownership and more), GreenBiz reviews how to keep upfront costs off low-income residents.

6. Multi-family EE resources: Affordable housing is often multi-family housing. For a list of resources in California specifically dedicated to multi-family EE, click here. Or take a look at multi-family EE program best practices in this 2015 report.

7. New Multi-family EE Strategies in NY: Looking outside California, a new multi-family energy program was announced this week from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

8. Making EE Buildings Visible: while on the subject of EE in buildings with multiple stakeholders: the US Dept. of Energy announced a new partnership under the Better Buildings Initiative with a firm that provides data intelligence to commercial real estate to improve the visibility of EE benefits.

9. Energy storage and microgrids: get new coverage from Navigant on the role of energy storage as the microgrid market matures.

10. The CPUC on microgrids and more: the CPUC issued a new proposed decision last week proposing a number of updates to California’s Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP).

11. Best practices in reducing plug load: Environmental Leader came out with five recommendations on checking appliances and reducing plug load in response to recent EPA audit results. A recent article from the NY Times also provides transparency on what appliances are consuming even in off or standby modes. For more on plug load, click here.

12. EE Computer Standards: while on plug load: the CEC has shared the transcript of its recent workshop on computer efficiency standards.

13. Seeking input on statewide EE programs: this week, the CPUC also released a new ruling seeking to work through approaches to statewide and third party programs and approaches in how EE funding and offerings are administered. A number of program categories are proposed for statewide implementation. Comments on this new approach are due June 10^th. More on the restructuring of EE program timelines and review available here.)

14. Opportunities in electric water heaters: A new study by the Brattle Group finds significant residential savings opportunities through electric water heaters.

15. More reasons to take air pollution seriously: Need help communicating the importance of clean air? A new study confirms that air pollution contributes to the #1 cause of death.

16. New podcast from DOE: Get connected to a new “Direct Current: podcast released this month from the Department of Energy!

17. Waste Heat is Power: For an old but innovative approach to efficiency, learn from Berkeley Engineer how a firm is using thermoelectrics to convert waste heat to energy.

18. Job Announcement: Cleantech San Diego is hiring for a Project Manager!

19. Job Announcement: San Diego State University is hiring for an Energy Analyst!

20. Energy Data Survey: as a reminder, the Energy Data Access Committee wants to hear from local governments re: their experience accessing data for climate action planning, through this survey available for a limited time here.

21. Weatherization Reminder: Interested in informing weatherization program development based on needs you see in your community? The Department of Community Services and Development (CSD)’s June 2^nd workshop is coming up: RSVP to attend in person or by webinar 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!