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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Performance Assurance Planning: Continuous Design-Level Performance of Each Energy Conservation Measure in a Utility Energy Service Contract is Fundamental to Achieving Projected Results

Design-level performance of each energy conservation measure (ECM) in an awarded utility energy service contract (UESC) is fundamental to achieving the projected results through the term of the contract and over the life of the measure. Because the authority for a UESC does not require contractual guarantees of energy, water, or cost savings, FEMP developed a protocol for emphasizing sustained performance to help ensure projected savings are realized. The information and templates offered within this paper reflect responsible project management and oversight, align with UESC best practices, and satisfy the conditions for annual scoring provided by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OMB memorandum M-12-21 requires, 'energy savings performance assurances,' 'measurement and verification (M&V) of savings through commissioning and retrocommissioing,' and 'competition or an alternatives analysis as part of the selection process.'

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Utility Energy Services Contracts: Enabling Documents

The Federal Energy Management Program's 'Utility Energy Service Contracts: Enabling Documents' provide legislative information and materials that clarify the authority for federal agencies to enter into utility energy service contracts, or UESCs.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Performance Assurance Planning: Continuous Design-Level Performance of Each Energy Conservation Measure in a Utility Energy Service Contract is Fundamental to Achieving Projected Results

An energy savings performance contract energy sales agreement (ESPC ESA) is a project structure, similar to a power purchase agreement, that uses the multiyear ESPC authority to implement renewable energy projects (referred to as ESA energy conservation measures [ECMs]) on federal buildings or land. The ESA ECM is initially privately owned for tax-incentive purposes, and the federal agency purchases the electricity it produces. An ESPC ESA is one of the most cost-effective methods for implementing on-site distributed energy projects at civilian federal agency sites.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

Performance Assurance Planning Guide for Utility Energy Service Contracts: 2025 Edition

Administered by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), the Utility Program has fostered collaboration among federal agencies and their serving utilities for more than 25 years. The Utility Program supports agencies using Utility Energy Service Contracts (UESCs), a well-developed, effective contracting vehicle that enable the latest approaches to cost-effective energy management at federal sites. Federal agencies have successfully used UESCs to award over 2,000 energy and water efficiency and renewable energy projects, investing approximately $\$$2.8 billion in furthering the Federal Government's efforts to reduce energy intensity. Authorized by 42 U.S. Code section 8256 (10 U.S. Code section 2913 for the Department of Defense), a UESC is a limited-source acquisition between a federal agency and an eligible serving utility for energy management services that generate savings from the implementation of energy- and water -conservation measures (collectively referred to as ECMs), with 42 U.S. Code section 8287 (Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement, Part 241), providing the term of a UESC, which may extend up to 25 years. Through a UESC, the utility partner assesses designs, and implements the desired ECMs - which can range from lighting retrofits and renewable energy systems, to combined heat and power plants or other technologies and strategies, and may provide financing for the project. The agency may use any combination of appropriations and third-party financing to pay for the project, providing useful flexibility. There is no limit to the project size, big or small, that can be implemented using a UESC. To assist agencies implementing a UESC, FEMP has developed a Utility Energy Service Contract Guide and this companion guidance document to help agencies and their utility partners better understand the best practices for to ensure UESCs continue to perform and generate savings throughout their performance period. These best practices utilize a combination of effective project management, communication, documentation, and a detailed Performance Assurance Plan. This plan is a project specific set of actionable protocols that define important tasks and responsibilities throughout the contract term and reflects the site conditions, complexities, agency capabilities, and operating and maintaining planned ECMs.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Utility Energy Service Contract Guide: A Resource for Contracting Officers Working on UESC Projects

A Utility Energy Service Contract (UESC) is a limited-source contract between a federal agency and serving utility for energy management services including energy and water efficiency improvements and demand-reduction services. In a UESC, the Contracting Officer (CO) will lead the acquisition effort, supported by technically knowledgeable staff working closely with the utility, to assess potential, investigate technical and economic feasibility, and ensure a fair and reasonable price for design and implementation of the project. The UESC Guide is a compilation of samples and templates developed as a resource to help COs implement Task Orders (TOs) for UESCs under existing U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Areawide Contracts (AWC). All samples and templates provided in this guide were derived from actual UESC project contract documents and will be available for download on FEMP’s website at https://www.energy.gov/node/850656. Templates in Microsoft Word can be modified to address each agency’s unique acquisition process.

Federal Energy Management Program↗
DOE OSTI2026

Energy utilization strategies in lignocellulosic biorefineries

Lignocellulosic biorefineries can generate various energy-rich side streams, including biogas from anaerobic digestion, a lignin stream from biomass pretreatment, and conversion residues. This study evaluates different chemical energy utilization strategies in lignocellulosic biorefineries based on energy and carbon efficiencies, cost, and greenhouse gas mitigation potential. Specifically, using modeling and optimization, we examine strategies that include electricity generation, biogas upgrade to biomethane, lignin valorization, and carbon capture and storage. We find that upgrading biogas to biomethane demonstrates the highest energy efficiency and leads to the lowest minimum fuel selling price for the main product, ethanol. The biorefinery with carbon capture and storage achieves the lowest net carbon footprint. Lignin valorization has the highest carbon footprint due to the additional materials required for lignin depolymerization, despite its potential to produce high value bioproducts.

Aboagye, Emmanuel A. [Princeton Univ., NJ (United ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Utility Energy Service Contract Boosts Chemical Weapons Destruction Mission at Army Pueblo Chemical Depot

For six decades, the U.S. Army has safely and securely stored chemical munitions at the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado. To help fulfill international treaty obligations and to meet a congressional deadline of 2023 for the elimination of these aging weapons, initial destruction of the Pueblo chemical weapons stockpile began in 2015. A utility energy service contract (UESC) executed in 2016 between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Depot’s serving utility, Black Hills Energy (BHE), directly supported this mission with the installation of a new electrical substation that was essential to the Depot’s need for uninterrupted power.

Army Pueblo Chemical Depot↗
DOE OSTI2025

Utility Energy Service Contract Guide

This guide serves as a key resource for acquisition teams developing utility energy service contracts (UESC) with an emphasis on using a task order to acquire energy management services under a General Services Administration areawide contract. The guide features a compilation of templates to assist your efforts from acquisition planning through awarding a task order for design and installation.

Cali, Peter [National Renewable Energy Laboratory ↗
DOE OSTI2017

Application of automated measurement and verification to utility energy efficiency program data

Trustworthy savings calculations are critical to convincing regulators of both the cost-effectiveness of energy efficiency program investments and their ability to defer supply-side capital investments. Today’s methods for measurement and verification (M&V) of energy savings constitute a significant portion of the total costs of energy efficiency programs. They also require time-consuming data acquisition. A spectrum of savings calculation approaches is used, with some relying more heavily on measured data and others relying more heavily on estimated, modeled, or stipulated data. The increasing availability of “smart” meters and devices that report near-real time data, combined with new analytical approaches to quantify savings, offers the potential to conduct M&V more quickly and at lower cost, with comparable or improved accuracy. Commercial energy management and information systems (EMIS) technologies are beginning to offer these ‘M&V 2.0’ capabilities, and program administrators want to understand how they might assist programs in quickly and accurately measuring energy savings. This paper presents the results of recent testing of the ability to use automation to streamline the M&V process. In this paper, we apply an automated whole-building M&V tool to historic data sets from energy efficiency programs to begin to explore the accuracy, cost, and time trade-offs between more traditional M&V, and these emerging streamlined methods that use high-resolution energy data and automated computational intelligence. For the data sets studied we evaluate the fraction of buildings that are well suited to automated baseline characterization, the uncertainty in gross savings that is due to M&V 2.0 tools’ model error, and indications of labor time savings, and how the automated savings results compare to prior, traditionally determined savings results. The results show that 70% of the buildings were well suited to the automated approach. In a majority of the cases (80%) savings and uncertainties for each individual building were quantified to levels above the criteria in ASHRAE Guideline 14. In addition the findings suggest that M&V 2.0 methods may also offer time-savings relative to traditional approaches. Lastly, we discuss the implications of these findings relative to the potential evolution of M&V, and pilots currently being launched to test how M&V automation can be integrated into ratepayer-funded programs and professional implementation and evaluation practice.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2018

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit”: Creating Alignment between Cities and Utility Energy Efficiency Programs

Cities are significantly acting as market catalysts to encourage and require building owners to improve energy performance. Yet, cities implementing building performance policies that require actions like audits or re-tuning may experience conflicts with their regulated utilities’ efficiency programs, which depend on energy savings being additional—not attributable to market adoption or preexisting laws. These utility programs preclude free ridership, meaning that the energy savings should be achieved by someone who otherwise would not have acted in the absence of the incentive or rebate. Utilities may decline to offer incentives where cities require particular actions, in turn dissuading cities from enacting ordinances that would lead to further efficiency improvements. This regulatory challenge impedes what could otherwise be a shared goal of improving energy efficiency. Finding solutions that allow city ordinances and utility programs to coexist is vital as cities are taking climate and energy matters into their own hands. Cities and utilities have so far navigated this problem informally. One potential approach is to apply established models from the world of energy codes, where some state regulators have permitted utilities to earn energy savings credit from supporting adoption of energy codes, or from improving code compliance. We consider how this approach and other frameworks could be applied to building performance policies. More specifically, this paper lays out a theory for how utilities can collaborate with local partners to drive deeper energy savings, with oversight from regulators, and examines the question of attributing the savings between the city and utility.

Crandall, Kelly↗
DOE OSTI2021

Infrared transmissive concentrated photovoltaics for coupling solar electric energy conversion to solar thermal energy utilization

The use of photovoltaic (PV) cells to convert solar energy to electricity is becoming increasingly prevalent; however, there are still significant limitations associated with the widespread adoption of PV cells for electricity needs. There is a clear need for a high efficiency solar power system that supplies electricity at a competitive cost and that provides for an on-demand supply of electricity as well as energy storage. By combining aspects of concentrated solar power and concentrated photovoltaics, the present invention provides a device that enables the conversion of sunlight to electricity at very high efficiencies and that enables the transmission of thermal energy to heat storage devices for later use. The disclosed device enables transmissive CPV through the use of a multijunction PV cell mounted on a transparent base. The use of a multijunction cell allows for highly efficient absorption of light above the bandgap of the lowest bandgap subcell. The transparent base permits transmission of a high percentage of the remaining light below the bandgap of the lowest bandgap subcell. The present invention also discloses a method of generating electricity through the use of a transmissive CPV device. Sunlight is concentrated onto one or more surfaces of the device. High energy light is absorbed by a multijunction PV cell and converted directly to electricity, while low energy light is transmitted through the device into a thermal storage device, which may then be coupled to a heat engine to generate dispatchable electricity.

Escarra, Matthew David↗