On October 27th, the SCC released the final order for the Dominion Energy EM&V proceeding. For this proceeding, the VAEEC acquired expert witness, Mark James, Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Energy and the Environment and adjunct professor at Vermont Law School to testify on our behalf. Additionally, staff from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy also provided technical assistance to our legal counsel and expert witness. In their final order, the Commission elected to adopt all of the recommendations in the Hearing Examiner’s report, which was released in July. 

Below is a summary of all of the Hearing Examiner’s findings and recommendations to the Commission with additional details on key recommendations. We have listed the page numbers in the report for the discussion on each recommendation so the reader can easily dive deeper into any recommendation of interest.

1. The focus of this proceeding is on adopting a more rigorous and accurate EM&V, and not on whether the Company’s current EM&V meets industry standards (p 44-50); VAEEC maintained “nationally-recognized TRMs that follow industry best practices, along with new commitments on EM&V that the Company is making in its post-hearing brief, can and will provide the accuracy that the Commission rightly demand”; 
2. The Commission should direct Staff to participate in the stakeholder process as a stakeholder to work with the Company and others to develop more rigorous and accurate EM&V data (p 50-53); James said, “With the newly established EM&V subgroup, the stakeholder process offers the opportunity for transparent presentation and discussion of options outside of a Commission proceeding. The recommendations generated by the EM&V subgroup would still be subject to Commission approval, but the products of the stakeholder group would be created through a transparent, collaborative, and consensus-driven process. Furthermore, using the stakeholder group allows for greater participation from interested parties and energy efficiency experts.” While SCC staff was concerned that participation would undermine their credibility, the Commission stated that they speak only through their Orders, not through Staff. 
3. The Commission should adopt the dashboard proposed by Company witness Frost in his rebuttal testimony (p 53-55), and attached to this Report as Attachment 1 (p 78); “The Company’s proposed dashboard represents an executive summary of high-level metrics that is easy to read and understood

at a glance. It focuses on spending, savings, metrics noted in the VCEA (such as carbon emission reductions and bill savings), and progress towards the GTSA and VCEA targets.” 

1. The Commission should adopt the reporting requirements committed to by Dominion Energy as further outlined in the Discussion (p 55-57); Adoption by the Commission should provide all interested parties clarity concerning the information to be provided by the Company and when that information will be provided. The provisions for using formats proposed by VAEEC witness James (or formats substantially similar) provides some flexibility as to the final format for these filings. Going forward changes in format or in the information provided can be addressed in future DSM proceedings.
2. The Commission should direct Dominion Energy to file the May EM&V Report in the Company’s December DSM filings (p 57-58); If the entire EM&V Report from May were also filed at the beginning of the new DSM proceeding, at the time of filing, it would represent the most current EM&V Report.
3. Deemed input values meet the measured and verified standard for determining compliance with the energy-saving requirements of the VCEA (p 58-62); VAEEC argued that, because it is impossible to measure electricity not consumed, all EM&V methods rely on extrapolations and have some margin of error and uncertainty. Indeed, VAEEC maintained  “the use of Virginia-specific inputs as recommended by Staff might prove to be less accurate than results based on deemed values.” VAEEC extended this to utility-specific data that may be less accurate and reliable than deemed values based on limitations of the utility-specific sample as compared to deemed values based on larger populations over longer periods of time. VAEEC recommended the Commission adopt the Company’s updated EM&V approach

as it is more rigorous and accurate than what was reviewed in 2019.

1. To increase the rigor and accuracy of the EM&V process, the Commission should adopt a combination of the Company’s proposed framework and the Staff’s proposed hierarchical framework, with both frameworks as further modified herein (p 62-73);
2. The Commission should direct the Company to document the baselines used during program design and all subsequent adjustments or changes to the baselines, and provide the documentation to Staff and the other parties upon request (p 73-75);
3. The Commission should direct the Company to increase the coordination between DNV and the program designer(s) consistent with their commitment in this proceeding (p 75); and
4. The Commission should direct the Company to undertake at least one baseline study based on Staff’s input. In the final order, the Commission required Dominion to select two programs to use in baseline studies to establish their own baselines for energy savings. The Company has ninety days from the final order to present this information to the SCC.