Looking Forward to 2022

As 2021 comes to a close, the RTF is already looking forward and preparing for next year. Staff and members have been busy approving a new work plan, releasing 6 new requests for proposal to support that work plan, setting 2022 meeting dates, and preparing to welcome and onboard a new class of RTF members.

Current RTF members have been serving in their roles since 2019. Now, three years later, they’ve got the RTF running like well oiled machine. Despite serving through two very difficult years, members have adapted smoothly to new formats and ways of doing things remotely and helped the RTF not miss a beat. We’ve said it a thousand times, but it bares repeating, we’re so grateful to our members who have stuck with us and helped the RTF stay effective and productive. We’re looking forward to celebrating them and all their great work at our final RTF meeting of the year in December.

Though we will miss our current group, we’re very excited to welcome a whole new class of RTF members for the 2022-2024 service term. As always, this new group brings a high level of technical expertise and a wide breadth of experience in planning, implementation, evaluation of efficiency programs and demand response products, as well as proficiencies in economic, statistical and engineering analysis.  We’re eager to get to work with this new group, starting at the new member orientation on January 25, 2022. For a full list of new voting and corresponding member see here.     

As a final task, the current RTF members approved for recommendation to the Council, the 2022 RTF work plan, to set a road map for those coming up behind them. Most of the work plan focuses on the core strength of the RTF over the past 20 years: developing electric energy efficiency savings estimates and methodologies for use in efficiency program planning and evaluation. In addition, this work continues the efforts to analyze natural gas energy efficiency savings from dual fuel and natural gas technologies and the assessment of demand response potential from technologies that provide both energy efficiency and demand response. The 2022 Work Plan also identifies several important projects that will enhance our understanding of the energy savings, costs, and benefits of both energy efficiency and demand response. This includes following up on recommendations identified in the Council’s draft 2021 Power Plan. The RTF approved the proposed work plan which then went on to the RTF Policy Advisory Committee for their recommendation and was approved by the Council at their October meeting.

In support of that work plan, staff has released six requests for proposal. Those are detailed on the RFP webpage on the RTF site, but briefly, the RTF is looking for support in a sub-regional baseline exploration, updating RTF workbooks for the 2021 Power Plan findings, exploring climate files for RTF analysis and two separate studies on valuation of resiliency and flexibility. The RTF is also accepting proposals for two longer standing contracts, one for quality control services and the other for RTF meeting minutes services. Those interested can find those requests here.

We’re looking forward to another year at the RTF and are excited for what 2022 holds. If you want to join us, RTF meetings through December 2022 have already been scheduled and you can find them here. Whether our meetings stay virtual, or we eventually get to all gather in person to discuss exhaustive technical details of efficiency savings like only the RTF can, we hope to see you there.