Select Apex Projects
Apex staff have worked on a diverse array of projects in the past several years.
A selection of some of our recent work is below.
Retail Product Portfolio Market Progress Evaluation
The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) contracted with Apex Analytics to conduct the first Market Progress Evaluation Report (MPER) for NEEA’s Retail Product Portfolio (RPP) program, which operates as part of a larger, national program, the ENERGY STAR® Retail Products Platform (ESRPP).
In January through July of 2021, Apex Analytics conducted document review, interviews with NEEA staff and staff from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and interviews with current and prospective ESRPP funders, to meet the following research objectives: -Document the status of key market progress indicators (MPIs) for RPP; -Understand the circumstances under which midstream incentives are most likely to affect retailer assortment for key products in the RPP portfolio; -Document NEEA’s involvement in the national ESRPP program; and -Propose a path forward for increasing the scale of the national ESRPP program. Apex Analytics found that NEEA’s RPP program has made substantial progress on metrics related to program processes and procedures and has made initial progress on MPIs related to the program’s influence on the market. Apex Analytics also found that there are multiple benefits to increasing the scale of the program and made recommendations for how NEEA can continue to grow the program.
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Extended Motor Products Pump and Circulator Baseline Assumptions Review
The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance’s (NEEA) Extended Motor Products (XMP) program aims to accelerate adoption of efficient pumps and circulators in the Northwest. NEEA engaged with Apex Analytics to conduct a review of its 20-year naturally occurring baselines for pumps and circulators.
Specifically, Apex reviewed: -NEEA’s assumptions regarding the timeframe that the XMP program began influencing the pumps market, -NEEA’s approach for integrating relevant market drivers, such as codes and standards, into the baseline forecasts, and -Whether NEEA’s baseline assumptions are appropriate given NEEA and its partners’ interventions in the pump and circulator markets to date. In February through May 2021, Apex Analytics conducted qualitative and quantitative analyses and, based on its review, made five recommendations for updates to NEEA’s baseline assumptions and additional analyses NEEA should conduct to better understand how data provided to NEEA by manufacturers’ representatives engaged with the XMP program compare with the full market. NEEA has accepted these recommendations and is incorporating them into its naturally occurring baseline forecasts
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State of Washington Distributed Energy Resources Planning
Apex supported the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission in developing recommendations on best practices and policies for electric utilities to develop distributed energy resource plans (as a subcontractor to Demand Side Analytics).
Evaluation to Support Adoption of More Stringent Standards for Manufactured Homes
Apex conducted an evaluation to assess NEEA’s Manufactured Homes program against key Market Progress Indicators (MPIs) to guide the future of the program. The evaluation assessed the program’s progress toward achieving self-sustaining adoption of an above-ENERGY STAR efficiency specification in the market.
The evaluation included interviews with manufactured home manufacturers and retailers throughout the Northwest, as well as regional utilities offering downstream incentives for manufactured homes. Apex found that, while the specification had not gained sufficient adoption to sustain itself without NEEA’s technical support, marketing support, and upstream incentives, the existence of the specification positioned NEEA to support the adoption of more stringent energy codes for manufactured homes.
Review of Residential Virtual Pre-Assessment Options
Apex researched virtual residential audit opportunities for delivering whole-home energy savings in response to COVID-19 restrictions for Connecticut utilities. This research categorized available options for virtual audits and recommended best practice approaches during this unprecedented time.
Northwest Residential Lighting Long-Term Monitoring and Tracking Study
The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) has contracted with Apex Analytics and DNVGL since 2018 to conduct the 16th Northwest Residential Lighting Market Analysis as part of its long-term monitoring and tracking (LTMT) of the residential lighting market. As in previous studies, Apex Analytics and DNV collected and analyzed store shelf and point-of-sale data to update market parameters including lamp sales mix and post-incentive per lamp cost.
NEEA HVAC Market Actor Profile
Apex led a research project to support NEEA’s HVAC project group’s efforts to increase the efficiency of small-to-medium commercial HVAC installations. The project drew on online focus groups and in-depth interviews with HVAC installers to assess their decision-making within different installation projects and identified differences in their approach to the market that NEEA may be able to use to better target intervention and outreach strategies.
National Energy Screen Project Assessment of Benefit Cost-Assessment Models
NESP commissioned a report to review how common BCA models support application of the NSPM framework. Apex's paper reviews five BCA models and the extent to which they allow for discrete accounting of a wide range of utility and non-utility impacts.
FortisBC Smart Learning Thermostat Pilot Evaluation
Apex led the evaluation of a FortisBC pilot that explored participant experience with smart thermostat use. This involved conducting two participant surveys and integrating findings from an electric and gas energy savings analysis.