2022 Annual Report

Securing the future for Northwest communities

Improving energy efficiency and reducing energy consumption leads to a secure future for Idaho and our country. Energy efficiency will enable Idaho to continue to meet the needs of its expanding communities while keeping energy rates low, and I appreciate the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance for its leadership in bringing together broad stakeholders to promote smart, cost-effective and responsible energy practices.

- Brad Little, Governor of Idaho

Efficient Rooftop Units

Offering All the Convenience Without the Waste

Due to their convenient and accessible packaging of heating, cooling and ventilation equipment in a single box, rooftop units (RTUs) have become a common HVAC solution for commercial buildings in the Northwest. Unfortunately, most RTUs use more energy than necessary, and when they die, they are simply replaced by another inefficient RTU.

In 2022, NEEA evaluated a promising technology known as efficient gas RTUs—a solution that combines a variety of energy-saving features to solve the problem of RTU waste without downgrading convenience. Partnering with Montana State University’s Integrated Design Lab, the alliance concluded a nine-month field trial that demonstrated a 40% reduction in small-to-medium-sized commercial building HVAC energy use. With additional field trials currently taking place in Portland, the alliance will continue to evaluate this technology across a variety of building and equipment types to further prove its energy-saving efficacy in northern climates.

Televisions

Ushering in a New Age of Efficiency

The alliance and its partners share a long and influential history advancing television efficiency for Northwest consumers, and 2022 was a impactful year for this transformational work.

In January 2022, ENERGY STAR® unveiled its final Version 9 TV specification, which introduced a NEEA-developed method for testing television efficiency that is far more accurate than the previous approach. By more precisely reflecting real-life television energy use, the CTA/ANSI-2037C testing method is swiftly moving the needle: As of October 2022, it is required for use by all television manufacturers when evaluating the efficiency of their products, and it has already influenced a new class of efficient televisions that hit Northwest shelves in 2023.

High-Performance Windows

A Clear View for Northwest Window Solutions

Representing the first major change to the ENERGY STAR® windows specification in more than a decade, the NEEA-influenced Version 7.0 Specification for Residential Windows, Doors and Skylights was finalized in October with lowered U-Factor requirements for the Northern Climate Zone.

This breakthrough follows years of collaboration between NEEA and the Partnership for Advanced Window Solutions (PAWS) to influence the national window-manufacturing market and thus elevate building efficiency and comfort in the Northwest. The newly lowered U-Factor requirements will provide a significant boost to the alliance’s Market Transformation efforts to motivate adoption of triple-pane windows that significantly reduce thermal transfer and reinforce the most vulnerable part of a building’s envelope.

Manufactured Homes

A New Standard, Decades in the Making

In March 2022, the alliance’s decades-long regional collaboration with BPA and Northwest manufactured home builders achieved a major milestone: The first federal standard for manufactured homes in more than twenty-five years.

Largely based on data and experience provided by this longstanding Northwest collaboration, the U.S. Department of Energy’s new energy conservation standard features a two-tier structure that requires substantial improvements to double-wide and larger manufactured homes, along with modest enhancements for single-wide homes. Further, following the introduction of the new standard, ENERGY STAR® elevated its own specification above the federal standard to include a heat pump option, allowing for even greater efficiency. Through years of work building high-performance manufactured homes, evaluating costs and best practices, and validating modeled energy savings, the alliance and its partners have permanently leveled-up manufactured home efficiency.

(All Investments)

2022 Co-Created Electric Energy Savings

NEEA estimates that the region achieved nearly 40 average megawatts (aMW) of Co-Created energy savings in 2022.

2022 Co-Created Natural Gas Savings

NEEA estimates that the alliance achieved 827,379 Therms of Co-Created natural gas savings in 2022. The majority of these savings are from residential code advancements in Idaho and Oregon.

The alliance’s natural gas portfolio is in early development.

Progress to 5-year goals (All Investments)

Co-Created Electric Energy Savings

For its Cycle 6 Business Plan (2020-2024), NEEA estimates that the region will achieve between 140-175 average megawatts (aMW) of Co-Created electric energy savings through the efforts of the alliance’s Market Transformation portfolio. This is equivalent to the amount of energy needed to power more than 120,000 Northwest homes each year.

Co-Created - or shared - energy savings include all savings above the baseline that occur in the market due to the combined efforts of NEEA and its partners.

1 aMW = enough energy to power about 730 Northwest homes per year

Progress to 5-year goals (All Investments)

Total Regional Natural Gas Energy Savings

NEEA estimates the region will achieve between 3.6 – 5.4 Million (MM) Therms of Total Regional natural gas energy savings through the efforts of the alliance’s Market Transformation portfolio during its Cycle 6 Business Plan (2020-2024). The forecast is driven by the market’s response to code updates in Washington, resulting in changes to new construction decision making.

Total Regional Savings include all savings calculated above the pre-intervention market starting point due to the combined efforts of NEEA and its partners.