CVPS/Manchester Program Concept:
Commercial Direct Install Lighting Program
January 10th, 2006
Quick Description of Opportunity
Manchester Village and Manchester Center Information
The Village of Manchester has 186 commercial customer accounts that represent 4.3 MW
of peak demand and 13,667 MWh of annual electricity use. Of known building types and
market segments, the largest contributor to the peak load (see table below) is the lodging
sector (28 percent), followed by large retail (14 percent), grocery (12 percent), and
schools (12 percent). One customer – Guiness Resorts (Equinox Hotel) – accounts for
more than half of the lodging peak demand (615 kW).
Manchester Center has a larger commercial customer base and electric load. There are
564 commercial accounts that represent 7.5 MW and 20,500 MWh of annual electricity
use. The breakdown is different in Manchester Center – of known building types and
market segments, the largest contributor to the peak load is small retail (19 percent),
followed by large retail (17 percent) and restaurant (17 percent). The remaining building
types account for less than 10 percent each.
Between 1991 and 2000, CVPS undertook lighting efficiency upgrades at 61 Manchester
businesses, installing primarily standard T8 linear fluorescent lighting, compact
fluorescent lighting, and LED exit signs. Since 2000, Efficiency Vermont has undertaken
projects at 31 additional locations (6 of which were new construction activities),
installing a wider range of measures (still predominantly lighting, adding T5 HO fixtures
to the mix). This suggests that the majority of commercial facilities have not yet been
visited, and that Super T8 technology could provide cost-effective retrofit opportunities
from the CVPS era.
Direct Installation Programs
“Direct Install” (DI) programs have been developed by National Grid, Connecticut Light
& Power, CVPS, Citizens Utilities, and Xenergy (among others) to promote energy
efficiency investments in businesses that have traditionally been hard-to-reach by energy
efficiency programs – notably small businesses. DI programs offer turnkey services,
combining project analysis, financial incentives, and installation into a unified package to
reduce the time and effort required on the part of the customer.
For example, the Small Business Energy Advantage (SBEA) program offered by
Connecticut Light & Power provides custom incentives for up to 50 percent of the cost of
retrofit lighting measures (typically 35 to 40 percent when viewed from a full installed
cost perspective), and up to 100 percent of the total installation cost of non-lighting
measures.1 SBEA also offers zero-percent financing option to provide positive cash flow
for a short (e.g., typically two-year) term. The majority of energy savings from SBEA
comes from lighting savings
Potential Savings
Lighting electricity use accounts for 25 to 40 percent of the electric energy consumption
for the building types that use the greatest amount of demand in and around Manchester –
retail (large and small), lodging, and schools, for a total of about 2,000 MWh.2 Saving 25
percent of that energy – through the installation of compact fluorescent lamps, new metal
halide track lights in retail applications, Super T-8 lamps and ballasts, and T-5 high
output fixtures (in place of metal halides) – would yield 500 MWh in savings and perhaps
100 kW in demand.
Program Strategies
Managerial Assistance
The greatest strength of the DI program is its managerial assistance. Electrical contractors
will handle all project arrangements for the customer – they will specify the replacement
systems, ensure adequate light levels, develop project costs and incentive offers, and
complete the installation.
CVPS or its contractor would develop and sign a Memorandum of Understanding with
each contractor. The contractors will agree to a set of procedures and job pricing to
follow in working with customers in Manchester, including:
o Description of baseline system
o Specification of replacement system
o Pre- and Post-installation verification by CVPS staff of a random sample of
projects
o Estimation of energy savings, and communication of savings to both the customer
and to CVPS
o Set pricing and incentive levels for specific lighting products
o Communication of cash flow benefits to customer
o Offering lease-purchase option for remainder of project cost
o Tracking of all pertinent project data, including: customers marketed to,
customers audited, audit data (including other observed non-lighting
opportunities, measures installed, measures declined by customer, costs, hours of
use, dates.
“Small Business Energy Advantage,” Best Practices Benchmarking for Energy Efficiency Programs.
Quamtum Consulting. http://www.eebestpractices.com/
2
Update to the VT DPS “Power to Save” study, 2002.
1
Technical Assistance
CVPS or its contractor will develop an energy savings calculation tool for use by
contractors to provide cash flow impact analysis to customer for the lighting project. The
savings estimates from the tool will be based upon the Efficiency Vermont TRM for each
lighting measure, or custom engineering calculations, as appropriate.
CVPS or its contractor will also develop the guidelines for baseline system
characterization and the specification of the replacement, high-efficiency system. Finally,
CVPS will develop, or at least specify, the tool to track program data.
The electrical contractors, and not CVPS staff, will provide the marketing and technical
assistance through the DI program.
Marketing/Persuasion
CVPS or its contractor will conduct general outreach to customers through the
Manchester Daylight Savings lead committee, the local Chamber of Commerce, and an
advertisement in the local newspaper. CVPS will also provide contractors with customer
lists, including name, address, phone, account number, and usage history. CVPS will also
provide some written marketing materials about the program for Contractor use.
Contractors will be responsible for direct customer marketing/business development. It is
expected that this will be through a combination of mailers, phone contact, and door-todoor canvassing.
Participating electrical contractors will be responsible for going door-to-door to develop
business opportunities.
Incentives
Through set pricing for customers, CVPS will provide the equivalent of 50 percent of the
cost of lighting equipment. The lease-purchase option for the remainder of the project
cost will be provided through a separate, third-party leasing company.
The lease-purchase option will be structure to provide immediate positive cash-flow to
customers from bill savings, with a floating term to ensure a minimum 20% of bill
savings accrue immediately to the customer.
Estimate of Budget
Given the characterization of building types in the Manchester area, and assuming
roughly 40 projects could be completed in the established timeframe, it is estimated that
the total project costs would be $860,000. Assuming CVPS would cover 50 percent of
total project costs, incentives would run $430,000.
Development of the DI Program, including:
o Establishing pricing and procedures for contractors, including drawing up a
standard MOU
o Labor associated with conducting outreach to contractors
o Developing and entering the MOU
o Developing guidelines for specifying the baseline and replacement systems
o Developing and training contractors on the use of a lighting savings tool
o Implementing pre- and post-installation verification
o Tracking completed projects, spending, and completed savings (via a
spreadsheet or other simple database)
would require an FTE for approximately 6 months, or roughly $75,000.
The total cost of the DI program, including both development and incentive costs, would
be roughly $505,000.
Savings Estimate
VEIC estimates that roughly 2,000 MWh and 340 kW of winter peak demand could be
saved annually through implementation of a direct install program through the first half
of 2006.
Advantages/Disadvantages
The advantages of the DI program are:
o It is easily differentiable from Efficiency Vermont, because EVT does not offer a
DI program (the DI program and EVT would be assumed to be mutually
exclusive)
o Because it is differentiable, it will be easier to track spending and energy savings
for this program specifically
o It is feasible to implement within the allotted timeframe (provided that there are
electrical contractors willing to participate)
o The lighting measures are highly cost-effective, persistent, and will provide
Winter kW savings
o The project will provide good information on the success of running a small
commercial DI program in Vermont
o It is an effective way to overcome the many barriers small commercial customers
face in undergoing efficiency improvements. As a result, it can capture costeffective savings fairly rapidly, and can be ramped up or down as necessary to
meet resource availability and savings needs.
The primary disadvantage of the DI program is its cost – incentive levels are typically
much higher than normal to encourage participation on both the part of customers as well
as contractors.
IT Needs/Issues
To track spending and savings for these projects, the data management system will need
to be able to:
o Distinguish these projects from EVT projects (new project codes)
o Incentive spending would need to be tracked in such a way to be able to invoice
CVPS for costs incurred.
o Upload savings and spending into the database, possibly from the “lighting
savings tool” to be used by contractors to communicate energy savings to
customer. This tool would therefore need to be designed to facilitate data
uploading as well, and have safeguards on data quality (similar to the CAT).
o The savings methodologies in the lighting savings tool would need to be agreedupon by the Public Service Board. Starting with the EVT TRM would be the
logical choice.