The Energy Efficiency Standards (EES) group at LBNL offers a broad range of expertise in support of DOE’s Appliances & Commercial Equipment Standards program and its mission to promulgate standards that achieve the maximum improvement in energy efficiency that is both technologically feasible and economically justified. Composed of staff from various academic disciplines, EES has developed a unique and powerful set of core capabilities, which break down into the following areas:

•          Cost-benefit assessment, including uncertainty and variability analysis

•          Energy modeling and forecasting

•          Emissions impacts assessment

•          Advanced technology and market assessment

•          Economic research

EES has primary responsibility for analyzing and reporting on the impacts and savings potential of energy efficiency standards on a range of products including:

•         home appliances,

•         residential heating, air-conditioning and water heating,

•         electric motors,

•         distribution transformers,

•         battery chargers and external power supplies,

•         consumer electronics,

•         lighting systems,

•         commercial heating, air-conditioning, and water heating, and

•         industrial equipment.

EES conducts its analyses at the regional, national, and international levels, contributing not only to the development of national efficiency standards, but also to global analyses of residential energy demand and efforts to regionally harmonize efficiency standards.

In addition to its analytical expertise, EES also constitutes a network of subject experts with strong ties to appliance industry leaders, appliance associations, and organizations that represent appliance-related interests.

Energy Efficiency Standards Analysis

EES expertise is employed in the following assessments that are critical to the development of new or amended efficiency standards:

•     Market and Technical Assessments  to characterize and analyze the market and technical potential of increasing product and equipment efficiency.

•     Markups analysis to develop distribution channel markups that relate the manufacturer production cost (MPC) to the cost to the consumer.

•     Annual energy and water use analysis to evaluate the change in performance of a product due to a standard.

•     LCC and payback period (PBP) analyses to calculate, at the consumer level, the discounted savings in operating costs over the lifetime of a product, compared to any increase in purchase and installation cost likely to result directly from a given standard.

•     LCC subgroup analysis to evaluate the impact of standards on particular consumer subpopulations.

•     Shipments analysis to forecast shipments of considered products, which are then used to calculate the national impacts of standards.

•     National impact analysis to assess aggregate standards impacts at the national level, as measured by the net present value of total consumer economic impacts and the national energy savings.

•     Utility impact analysis to estimate the effects of standards on electric and gas utilities.

•     Employment impact analysis to assess the indirect impacts on national employment.

•     Environmental impact analysis to estimate the effects of amended standards on emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NO_X), and mercury (Hg).

•     Regulatory impact analysis to examine major alternatives to amended standards that potentially could achieve a similar regulatory goal at a lower cost.