The U.S. electric power industry is in a transformational era. With the potential to save up to $18 billion in power system costs and 80 million tons of carbon emissions annually, grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs) are critical to achieve a modern, carbon-free energy system.

As part of the accelerating industry focus on carbon-reduction targets and strategies, utilities are increasingly embracing innovative demand-side resources and programs, including leveraging energy efficiency (EE), demand flexibility (DF), demand response (DR) and distributed energy resources (DERs) in the residential and commercial sectors to develop GEBs, which can be used as a resource. 

This presentation will highlight SEPA’s Accelerating Coordinated Utility Programs for Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings: Practitioners’ Perspectives study, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This work examines the current state of coordinated energy efficiency, demand flexibility, and demand response utility programs that support GEBs, and how programs are transitioning to integrate energy conservation and active management of electricity in buildings for the direct or indirect provision of grid services. By gathering insights from utilities, program administrators, technology solution providers, and regulators about energy program business models and regulatory frameworks, the study provides: 

• Practitioner perspectives on challenges to and potential solution strategies for the building energy program transition
• Identifies challenges of deploying effective coordinated energy efficiency, demand flexibility, and demand response utility programs
• Provides solution strategies to support all stakeholders looking to unlock a GEBs future