Massachusetts Accelerated Energy Program
For the past 2 years, EE&D has been the prime consultant supporting the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Accelerated Energy Program. The Accelerated Energy Program (AEP) was established to accelerate the implementation of energy and water savings projects, renewable energy and innovative technology across the Commonwealth’s portfolio of more than 4,800 buildings.
Our primary responsibilities included supporting the State’s Energy Team and other stakeholders with:
- Development of the program and processes needed
- Develop a new procurement strategy for 450 small sites
- Tracking, controls and data management for energy projects at 700 sites
- Developing and implementing a Quality Assurance plan
- Technical evaluation of Energy Conservation measures
- Development of an Ongoing Performance Verification and training plan
- Identifying and implementing innovative technologies
- Developing and Piloting Towards Zero Net Energy practices at 10 sites.
One of the key findings that resulted from the AEP was that most easy energy conservation measures have already been done. In order to reach the goal of 25% energy and greenhouse gas reductions, deeper energy conservation measures with longer paybacks had to be implemented. This lead to the realization that cost savings other than energy should be included and a Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) should be used to describe the full economic impact rather than just a simple payback calculation.
This “Deep Energy” effort, coupled with the application of renewable energy sources, led to the idea of piloting Toward Zero Net Energy (TZNE) projects. Ten sites were selected to pilot the effort of very deep energy savings projects, coupled with avoided capital projects, deferred maintenance improvements, and renewable energy sources. The philosophy is; consider the long term impact of all energy related upgrades, make a long term plan, then begin to implement the measures.
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The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is recognized as a national leader in energy and water efficiency. In 2014, for the fourth consecutive year, the Commonwealth was ranked as the top state in the nation for energy efficiency policies and programs by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE). The AEP is one of the key programs that contributed to the ACEEE designation as #1 in Energy Efficiency.
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