Utility Efficiency Program Support to Capture Cost-Effective Energy Savings from CAC Trainings
The Compressed Air Challenge (CAC) Fundamentals and Advanced Training sessions are a great way to educate end-use customers on the operation of their compressed air systems and how to improve their system efficiency. But many training participants are very busy with other tasks when they go back to their facility and may not be able to effectively follow through with efficiency opportunities they have learned about for their system. In addition, most utility energy efficiency programs do not have a comprehensive mechanism to capture and claim the energy savings that does come from the energy efficiency actions that are taken by the training participant after the training. Recognizing these two opportunities to provide support to the customer to take action and to the utility programs to capture very cost-effective savings for the program, the CAC has developed a support package for the utility program to deploy that can both support the customers and provide additional claimable energy savings for the program. Three utility programs performed this type of follow-up support resulting in significant savings with an average savings per customer of about 100,000 kWh which at $0.10/kWh would result in a program benefit of $10,000 per customer (see CAC Utility Case Study). The following are the key components of this customer and program CAC support package.
Expert Calls Customer (right after training) to Support Action Plan Development
Within 3 weeks after training class completion the CAC can provide a compressed air expert to follow-up with the customer to ask if customer has any questions on the training. This expert will inform the customer about any compressed air utility program incentives that might be available for finding and repairing leaks, change to more efficient nozzle incentives, providing studies, or other compressed air system incentives. They will also review the 7-step action plan that was presented at the training, discuss how they plan on moving forward with the steps, and determine what help they may need to complete the action plan. In addition to the action plan call, this phase also includes some time for the customer to call the expert to ask questions regarding their system. Finally, the expert will inquire if the customer would like a high level site visit review of their compressed air system. The cost for this follow-up call right after the training and further support includes up to 3 hours of an expert time at $175/h for a maximum total of $525 per customer.
Expert Calls Customer (6 months after training) to Collect Information to Capture Savings from Completed Projects
About 6 months after the training session an expert will call the customer to discover what projects the customer has completed. They will gather the appropriate information and estimate the savings for program to claim. They will also answer any other customer questions the customer may have on other projects for the compressed air system. The cost for this follow-up call 6 months after the training and energy saving estimate calculations includes up to 6 hours of an expert time at $175/h for a maximum total of $1,050 per customer.
Option - High Level Site Visit After Training
One option to improve the likelihood of the action plan being completed and energy saving projects being implemented is for an expert to perform a high-level site visit after the training. The potential savings from this approach is significantly higher than from just the two follow-up calls described above. We estimate that the savings potential from an expert site visit can be on the order of 10 to 20% of the compressed air energy usage. The CAC cost for performing this high-level on-site visit with short follow-up report includes up to 12 hours of an expert time at $175/h for a maximum total of $2,100 per customer not including travel expenses.
Option – Call an Expert
Another option is to provide the customer an additional number of hours to consult with a CAC expert after their training. This can allow them to get more remote, unbiased support for projects they are considering. This will also increase the likelihood of projects being installed and energy savings occurring from the training. The CAC cost for this service is $175/h based on actual hours working with the customers and can be capped at a not-to-exceed number of hours.
Utility Package Support Options