|
| Back to Contents Page |
Home Energy Index |
About Home Energy |
| Home Energy Home Page
| Back Issues of Home Energy |
Home Energy Magazine Online May/June 1999
trends
in energy
Cost-Effective Weatherization in Philadelphia
 |
| ECA technician Tom Homer wraps a hot water heater with an insulating
blanket. |
| Table 1. Cost-Effectiveness of Selected ECA Measures |
| Measure |
Gas Savings (in ccf) |
Assumptions Lifetime/per year Degradation |
Savings (Present Value) |
Cost |
Benefit/Cost Ratio* |
| Roof insulation |
189 |
15 yr/5% |
$710 |
$663 |
1.07 |
| Thermostat |
91 |
7 yr/10% |
$193 |
$55 |
3.51 |
| Air sealing |
70 |
15 yr/5% |
$263 |
$158 |
1.66 |
| Other |
100 |
10 yr/10% |
$253 |
$216 |
1.17 |
| *A benefit/cost ratio of more than 1.0 indicates that the
measure saves more money than it costs to implement, taking into account
the time value of money. |
|
Our organization--the Energy Coordinating Agency
of Philadelphia (ECA)--has broken new ground in the never-ending effort
to increase cost-effectiveness. An evaluation has found that, under our
program, the Conservation Works Program (CWP), it is more cost-effective
for our client utility to provide free conservation services to its low-income,
payment-troubled customers than it would be to continue passing on the
uncollectible expense to other ratepayers.
CWP saves gas for less money than Philadelphia
Gas Works (PGW) pays in avoided costs--35¢ per hundred cubic feet
(ccf) per year. This is an important development in the current era of
competition, in which utilities are slashing their demand-side management
(DSM) programs and trying to trim costs in every possible way. We are proud
that our program allows both customers and the utility to save energy and
money.
Big Energy Savings
CWP has achieved impressive energy savings for a
low-cost program. The evaluator--Mike Blasnik of Blasnik & Associates
in Boston, Massachusetts--found that CWP's net gas savings of 187 ccf per
year surpasses the overall net savings found for the National Weatherization
Assistance Program (NWAP) in 1989. NWAP spent three times more per house,
in real terms, than CWP spends. Blasnick compared CWP to similar low-income
programs across the nation and found that it provided more first-year savings
per dollar spent than any other program he reviewed.
ECA's work is cost-effective when gas savings
and payment impacts are estimated using the avoided-cost approach developed
in prior evaluations, and assuming fairly conservative measure lives with
ongoing degradation of savings. A preliminary analysis of gross savings
persistence found no degradation in savings for the second winter after
treatment. In fact, savings appear to have increased slightly, meaning
that education seems to have motivated customers to reduce usage.
Savings were disaggregated into the major measures
of roof insulation, thermostats, air sealing, and "other" (including savings
from education, hot water leak repair, and many low-cost measures). Thermostat
savings were particularly impressive, saving 91 ccf per year for an installed
cost of only $55 each (see Table 1).
Evaluation Saves Program
Our program's future was threatened as PGW struggled
with its perennial problem of high uncollectibles combined with lower-than-normal
gas sales, based on two warmer-than-average winters in a row. If it hadn't
been for this evaluation proving that CWP is now extremely cost-effective,
the program might have been cut back severely. However, because of our
proven good results, CWP has been continued for 1999 at the same level
of funding.
Liz Robinson is executive director of the Energy
Coordinating Agency of Philadelphia.
| Back to Contents Page |
Home Energy Index |
About
Home Energy |
| Home Energy Home Page
| Back Issues of Home Energy |
Home Energy can be reached at: contact@homeenergy.org
Home Energy magazine -- Please read our Copyright Notice
|
