A new temperature-load adjusted baseline method for measuring demand savings

As the primary measurement & verification contractor, Nexant Inc. was responsible for evaluating the demand savings (kW peak reduction) obtained as a result of the California Energy Commission (CEC) sponsored demand reduction (DR) program. During the course of this evaluation, several baseline techniques for demand savings calculations were examined and a baseline technique that inherently includes temperature effects was proposed and used in the verification of pilot test results. This paper presents a comprehensive set of the reviewed baseline methodologies and the proposed, temperature-load adjusted method. A common set of 15-minute interval revenue meter data is used to make the comparison between each of these baseline techniques. While major differences exist in the demand savings due to different baseline methods, the results of the proposed temperature-load adjusted method are more conservative. That is, it shows lower demand savings.