WAC 194-37-080   Documentation of conservation savings.  (1) The utility shall document:

     (a) That it achieved its biennial conservation target;

     (b) The total savings in customer efficiency measures; and

     (c) If included in the target, the savings in the production and distribution sectors.

     (2) A conservation measure or program counts towards a utility biennial target if it meets the following criteria:

     (a) The conservation has a measure life of at least two years, or, if the measure life is less than two years the utility can verify that it has acquired the conservation for the entire biennium;

     (b) It meets the definitions of conservation and cost effective as contained in WAC 194-37-040; and

     (c) The NWPCC includes the measure or program in its power plan, or the measure or program is not identified by the NWPCC but it meets the definition of cost effective in RCW 19.285.030.

     (3) The utility shall count the total first year savings of a conservation measure in the year during which either the measure was installed or the utility paid for it.

     (4) Each utility may count towards its biennial conservation targets the proportionate share of savings resulting in its service territory from the following conservation efforts during the one biennium in which either the measure or program was placed in service or the utility paid for the measure:

     (a) End-use savings from region-wide conservation projects that are centrally funded by BPA and for which the utility shared in the funding through its BPA rates.

     (b) Savings from regional market transformation efforts if the NWPCC includes the program measures in its most recently published Power Plan's conservation resource potential or, as a newly emerging technology, the measure has yet to be included in the NWPCC's resource potential. Each utility will report a proportion of savings from these programs using established distribution methods, based on each utility's relative share of funding the regional market transformation effort through both direct funding and indirect funding through their BPA rates.

     (c) Savings from improved federal minimum energy efficiency standards or Washington state building energy code improvements or improved state appliance codes and standards in the biennium in which they become effective, as proportionate to the utility's service territory. After that biennium, a utility may no longer include savings from those specific codes and/or standards in its next ten-year potential.

     (5) Utilities may count savings from more stringent local building and/or local equipment codes and standards, including utility new service or connection standards, towards meeting their biennial conservation target in the biennium in which they become effective and in each biennium the local standards continue to be enforced and achieve incremental savings above minimum state energy codes or minimum federal energy standards.

     (6) A utility cannot count the loss of load due to curtailments or matters outside of the utility's control (such as a facility shut-down) as achievement towards its conservation targets. However, such losses of load may change the level of current and future targets to the extent that they reduce the conservation potential available to the utility.

     (7) The energy savings from an increase in distribution efficiencies are described, documented and counted under WAC 194-37-090. The energy savings from an increase in production efficiencies are described, documented and counted under WAC 194-37-100.

     (8) Conservation savings from utility programs beginning in 2010 for measures for which the NWPCC and the regional technical forum have established per unit energy savings values will be based on the per unit savings set by the NWPCC's regional technical forum "planning, tracking and reporting system," unless the utility documents its variations in electricity saving estimates from the regional technical forum.

     (9) Conservation savings from utility programs beginning in 2010 for custom measures shall be developed pursuant to the NWPCC's custom requirements available through the regional technical forum's "planning, tracking and reporting system" or through a similar analytical framework.

     (10) A utility may count towards the utility's biennial end-use conservation target, twelve individual months' worth of conservation during the first twelve months of a high efficiency cogeneration facility's operations in its service territory. The high efficiency cogeneration facility shall be owned and used by a retail electric consumer to meet that consumer's heat and power needs. Only that output used by that customer to meet its own needs can count toward the utility's conservation target.

     In order to count this in its conservation target, the utility shall prepare the following documentation, certified by a registered professional engineer licensed by the Washington department of licensing:

     (a) That the cogeneration system has a useful thermal energy output of no less than thirty-three percent of the total energy output; and

     (b) An analysis that indicates the reduction in annual electricity consumption due to high efficiency cogeneration. This reduction is calculated as the net facility's annual electrical energy production times the ratio of the fuel chargeable to power heat rate of the cogeneration facility divided by the heat rate on a new and clean basis of a best-commercially available technology combined-cycle natural gas-fired combustion turbine.

     (11) A utility may document shortfalls in meeting its biennial conservation target due to lack of customer participation. Documentation of such shortfalls shall include a demonstration that:

     (a) A broad array of marketing and program options were provided to customers throughout the biennium; and

     (b) The utility offered throughout the biennium to pay customers an incentive in an amount equal to the utility's full avoided cost over the lifetime of measures, up to one hundred percent of the incremental cost of measures. Any such shortfall cannot be automatically deducted from the utility's conservation potential assessment for the subsequent biennium.



[Statutory Authority: RCW 19.285.080(2). 08-07-079, § 194-37-080, filed 3/18/08, effective 4/18/08.]