This page houses all of the supporting resources that are not specific to an single existing UES measure or standard protocol but fundamental or supportive of the RTF work. The tools and models section provide the documents and workbooks that support the development of the majority of RTF analyses and the resulting work products, both Standard Protocols and UES measures. The studies and research projects section contains the results of special efforts that may be used to inform furture RTF discussions or incorporated into work products. This page also houses the results of third party assessments of RTF UES measures and current templates.
RTF Guidelines
RTF Guidelines. In support of its mission, the RTF adopts a set of formal Guidelines by which to judge the quality and reliability of savings estimates, costs and benefits, and the lifetimes of RTF measures and protocols. The goal of this guidance is to ensure that various methods of savings estimation will produce savings estimates relative to consistent baselines and of comparable reliability sufficient to meet the needs of regional energy planners. The RTF revisits these Guidelines at regular intervals to ensure they are still serving this goal and supporting the region. At it's October 2020 meeting, the RTF approved updates to its Guidelines. You will find the latest version below.
Tools and models
Standard Information Workbook. The RTF's Standard Information Workbook (SIW) houses assumptions and data that are used across multiple measures and standard protocols.
Climate Information. As a resource for utilities in the region, the RTF develops a methodology to help utilities select their appropriate heating and cooling zones. This page also holds the RTF's TMYx weather files.
End Use Load Research Hourly Data. Data from the End Use Load Research (EULR) project may be useful in updating saving shapes going forward.
Residential Energy Efficiency and Demand Response Tool. The Residential EE and DR tool (REEDR) is an open-source tool that was designed to ease the process of building, running, and analyzing residential building energy models in EnergyPlus.
Training: See below for links to training on various models.
Commercial Building Simulation Models. These models are based in EnergyPlus, built using the Modelkit framework, and specific to the Northwest region. The RTF is in the process of aligning the models with monthly consumption data from regional Commercial Building Stock Assessments (CBSAs). The models are intended to be used for a variety of purposes, including conservation and demand response assessments and HVAC interaction factor and savings shape development.
ProCost. The ProCost model is the tool used by the RTF and the Council to characterize the costs and benefits of conservation measures and programs.
Simplified Energy Enthalpy Model. The Simplied Energy Enthalpy Model (SEEM) program is designed to model small scale residential building energy use.
Measure Specific Supporting Files Archive. An archive of the workbooks that support archived versions of the RTF measures workbooks.
RTF studies and research projects
Low GWP Refrigerant Impact on Energy Efficiency. The RTF developed insights into three research areas associated with the current state of production and use of refrigerants, given enacted laws across the U.S. to limit those with high global warming potential. The focus was on the Council states.
Framework for Quantifying Flexibility. The RTF investigated the current landscape of how power system power planning accounts for demand flexibility and the interactivity between EE and DR, as well as provided analysis and classification of the interactive effects between EE and DR resources to inform future modeling of these resources.
Resiliency Value from Energy Efficiency Measures Study. The RTF developed insights and an Excel based tool to quantify the value of energy efficiency measures in providing building resilience during grid outages.
Secondary Market Impacts on Measures Baseline Study. The RTF explored if and how secondary baselines should be considered when establishing savings estimates for measures.
Secondary Market Impacts Study
Exploring the Sub-regional: Implications of Measures Using Population-based Identifiers. The RTF researched the potential and implications of incorporating sub-regional population based measure identifiers into the RTF's anaysis.
Population-based Identifiers Study
Air Source Heat Pump White Paper. In January 2021, RTF staff made available a white paper summarizing the energy impacts of installation practices on single-speed air-source heat pumps installed in residences in the Pacific Northwest Region. The goal of the paper was to provide a technical explanation of the impact of installation practice to help identify promising directions for program evolution. It was written with energy efficiency program operators in mind with the energy impacts presented as recommendations for consideration in program designs.
Single-Speed ASHPs: Energy Impacts of Efficiency Program Design Elements
Review of RTF UES measures
UES Measure Cost Review. In 2022, a contractor reviewed all of the RTF's UES measure workbooks to assess the rigor of the incremental cost estimates and methodologies, accuracy, and consisency with the RTF Guidelines.
Capacity Benefits. In 2016, a contractor reviewed all of the RTF's UES measure workbooks to assess the reliability of load shapes selected, provide alternatives where appropriate, and recommendations as to potential next steps for improving reliability.
Training
The RTF occasionally offers trainings on various models. The recordings of these trainings are available on the Council's Vimeo channel. Direct links below:
Intro to Modeling (April 2024)
EnergyPlus Overview (April 2024)
Introduction to REEDR (May 2024)
REEDR - EE and DR Analysis (May 2024)
(example files to download to try during the training)
See our calendar for additional trainings scheduled for April and May 2024. Recordings will be added to the meeting page and here when complete.
Templates
The following files are used as starting templates by the RTF when drafting measure analysis documentation.
| Supporting Documents | Upload Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Research Strategy Template (Word) | 2017 | Latest version |
| Research Plan Template_v4.0 (Word) | 2017 | Latest version |
| Standard Protocol Template_v2.0 (Word) | 2017 | Latest version |
| RTF Presentation Template (PowerPoint) | 2024 | Latest version |
| RTF Small/Rural Utilities UES Design Checklist Template (Excel) | 2017 | Latest version |
| Past Templates | ||
| Provisional Research Plan Template_v3.0 | 2013 | Changes made to add more context to section headings |
| Provisional Research Plan Template_v1.0 | 2013 | First adopted version |
| Standard Protocol Template_v1.0 | 2013 | First adopted version |