The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance’s (NEEA) Advanced Commercial Water Heating program aims to accelerate market adoption of commercial gas heat pumps and dual-fuel solutions. Currently, the Advanced Commercial Water Heating program is in the program development phase of NEEA’s Initiative Lifecycle.

Program work in this phase focuses on information gathering and assumption verification, including identifying market barriers and opportunities, clarifying product definition and validating performance, and targeted market engagement. By the end of this phase, NEEA hopes to define program strategy and establish market interventions. To support these outcomes, this RFP will gather market insights via targeted engagements with Key Partners.

Ongoing industry engagement has been broad and focused on sharing learnings regarding advanced commercial water heating market progress across the United States and Canada. The program has engaged with gas heat pump manufacturers, electric heat pump manufacturers interested in dual-fuel solutions, and extra-regional utility partners. NEEA has identified the need to approach engagement more strategically with a greater focus on the Northwest; therefore, the primary goal of this RFP is to develop and execute targeted engagement plans with Key Partners to strengthen existing relationships, glean market intelligence, identify goals and areas for collaboration, inform Program strategy, and fulfill needs specific to market acceleration in the Northwest.

In addition to market engagement, the program is currently focused on performance testing and has two multi-family field demonstrations in progress. To support ongoing recruitment efforts to test in a hotel or full-service restaurant application, the Awardee will leverage engagement to identify leads for field demonstrations in the Northwest.

This RFP will support the program by engaging more strategically with Key Partners to strengthen relationships and advance the adoption of gas heat pumps and dual-fuel commercial water heating systems by developing and facilitating engagement plans for both Manufacturers and Key Stakeholders (each an “Engagement Plan” and, collectively, “Engagement Plans”).

Intent to Respond is due March 23, 2026. The deadline for submitting written proposals is April 13, 2026.