RTF Small Saver Review ProcessProposal

June 19, 2012

Small Savers as defined per Guidelines

• RTF determines that likely savings from a measure are too small to warrant resources needed to meet reliability criteria of active or provisional UES

• RTF considers size of regional end use affected by measure

• Measure specifications required before RTF can designate measure as small saver

• RTF may choose to convene an expert panel to consider proposed measure and formulate consensus opinion

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Small Saver process development

• April Small/Rural Subcommittee meeting– Expect that small savers will come from S/R utilities

– Noted a lack of specific criteria and path for approval in the guidelines for small savers

– Talked about mapping out process through Guidelines

– Develop template for utilities to apply for small savers

– RTF Staff and Eugene Rosolie iterated over draft process

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Criteria questions that arose

• When should a measure be considered for small saver status?

• Who should make that designation?

• What should be considered in designation?– Estimated resource potential?

– Applicability to Small & Rural utilities?

• How are small savers applied to small, rural and large utilities?

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Small Saver process development

• May Small/Rural Subcommittee meeting– Presented draft flowchart and savings checklist for an example

measure (T12->HPT8)

– Originally developed checklist specific to small savers

• Decided that Appendix A checklist adequately covered Small Saver designation

– S/R subcommittee would be advocate for utilities that bring small saver measure forward

• S/R subcommittee would help define characteristics with proposer

– Proposed a small saver subcommittee as the next step after S/R designates measure as small saver and helps characterize

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Small Saver process development

• May Operations Subcommittee meeting– Presented same flowchart and checklist

– Received guidance to develop clearer process and better documentation of process

– RTF staff looked at modifying process for small saver review

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More Questions, Less Answers

• What is the Target Size for a Small Saver? – No consensus among members over setting a target

“small” size

– Many believe “we’ll know one when we see it”

• What is the expected Resource Potential?– Inability of some utilities to accurately predict

• Should S/R subcommittee be making small saver determination?

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Small Saver process development

• June Small/Rural Subcommittee meeting– Presented revised flowchart and documentation

– Agreement that process looks good as a start and should perhaps be tested at RTF

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Small Saver Flowchart: Part 1Data source for measure

Small/Rural utility proposes measure

SRR committee decides if measure should go forward

SRR committee works with proposer to develop measure

characteristics

Measure not pursued or is re-defined by proposer

Measure Screening committee decides if measure should go forward

Data source for measure

Larger utilityproposes measure

Measure not pursued or is re-defined by proposer

NO

NO

YES

YES

Small Saver Flowchart: Part 2Is measure

likely to achieve Active status?

Measure put into RTF workplan for

prioritization and development

YES

Measure Screening committee determines

which Guidelines path is

appropriate

YES

Measure Screening committee works with proposer to develop Small Saver measure

NO

SRR committee remains engaged if proposer

was S/R utility

Measure is considered a Small Saver

Overall process benefits

• Follows Guidelines approach that measures should trend towards active if possible

• Both S/R and large utilities have an understanding of where measures go

• Lessens burden on S/R subcommittee

Measure Screening Committee Benefits

• Small/Rural and Large utility coordination– Measures from large utilities that might be

applicable to S/R utilities get picked up

– If S/R checklist leads to measure variation, this modified measure enters through Measure Screening committee and process continues

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Measure Screening Committee Benefits

• Committee looks at all new measures, not just ones that are “small”– Don’t form another subcommittee that spends time

solely on smallest resource potential

• Measures prioritized in workplan after Screening Committee reviews them– Easier for staff to assess measure needs and allocate

resources– More transparent measure selection procedure

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Next steps

• Test this out to see how process works– Bring measure through S/R subcommittee and

solicit feedback

– RTF staff serve as interim “measure screening” subcommittee to test out process

• Refine process and bring back to RTF for decision on how to treat Small Savers

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