Comments by HPC to Support the New Jersey 2019 Energy Master Plan

As leaders in the residential energy efficiency industry, the Home Performance Coalition (HPC) responded to the September 2018 request by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJ BPU) to provide feedback that supports the state's development of its 2019 Energy Master Plan.

Topics include:

• weatherization
• key non-energy benefits
• demand response programs
• cost-benefit analysis and testing
• emerging technologies
• data standards and analytics
• economic growth and workforce development

A Policymaker’s Guide to Scaling Home Energy Upgrades, which provides an overview of policies needed to advance energy efficiency in the existing home space, were among the resources provided to the NJ BPU. American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy's (ACEEE) report, Saving Energy, Saving Lives: The Health Impacts of Avoiding Power Plant Pollution with Energy Efficiency addresses the impacts of poor air quality and the benefits that could be shown with a 15% reduction in annual electric consumption. ACEEE ranked states based on the potential dollar value of avoided health harms and New Jersey ranked 12th out of the fifty states.

Historically, New Jersey’s home performance programs have focused on improving the thermal quality of the building shell and increasing the efficiency of HVAC and other appliances. Emerging grid-interactive and smart home technologies add a third efficiency strategy: better control. Redefining Home Performance in the 21st Century: How the Smart Home Could Revolutionize the Industry and Transform the Home-to-Grid Connection, details the use of these technologies and expands on how homeowners can be part of the energy grid solution.

HPC also recommended that NJ BPU support data standardization in the residential energy efficiency industry by requiring the use of the national open data standard, Home Performance Extensible Markup Language (HPXML), for all residential energy efficiency programs. HPXML includes a data dictionary that creates a common “vocabulary” for the residential energy efficiency industry and a data transfer protocol that provides the basis for communication between software systems.

According to a report from the ACEEE, New Jersey was recently recognized as the most improved state for its energy efficiency policies and best practices. HPC applauds the efforts of the state of New Jersey and its current administration for making the reduction of energy consumption a priority.

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