The International Energy Program Evaluation Conference (IEPEC) is the premier conference for energy program implementers; evaluators; local, state, national and international representatives; and academic researchers involved in distributed energy resource (DER) energy program evaluation. The conference advances the goals of conserving natural resources and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by helping to overcome one of the key barriers to implementing DER programs – the lack of confidence in the reported results.

Itron’s Strategic Analytics group will be attending this year’s IEPEC conference in Denver, Colorado, Aug. 20-22. Our team will be presenting seven different papers and posters covering topics in behind-the-meter storage, smart homes and energy efficiency programs.

Itron’s Strategic Analytics staff will present four distinct papers showing our thought leadership on several prominent DER topics:

• Brian McAuley will present “Spring Cleaning: Organizing the Impacts within the Behind-the-Meter Energy Storage Closet.” Brian will examine the relationships between customer retail rates, utility marginal costs and storage dispatch behavior to better understand how utilities can maximize the benefits of BTM energy storage.
• Sean Maher will present “The Rocky Road to Shifting Load - Challenges of Installing Advanced Energy Storage and EV Chargers.” In his session, Sean will present an overview of implementation concerns associated with smart homes and the interconnectivity and control of smart equipment in California.
• William Marin will present “Does Behind-the-Meter Storage Increase Solar Adoption? An Attribution Analysis Tells the Story.” His presentation will summarize survey findings with various market actors, such as storage customers and project developers, and discuss the implications of attributing the impacts of energy storage systems paired with PV.
• Morgan Smith will present “Piquing Interest in Shifting Peaks: Studying the Real-World Impacts of Load Shifting.” In her presentation, Morgan will describe the ability of smart controls and advanced technologies to shift customer usage while maintaining customer satisfaction.

In addition to the presentations listed above, our staff will be showcasing multimedia displays on the following topics:

• Mike Heng will present an interactive display showing in detail the critical steps required when sampling, metering, validating and analyzing BTM storage performance data in “Realizing the Full Capacity of Energy Storage Data: Critical Steps in Evaluating Behind-the-Meter Battery Data.”
• Morgan Smith will showcase Itron’s rate analysis dashboard, which allows users to visualize the expected impact of combining different rate structures and a variety of emerging technologies in “Seeing is Believing: Visualizing Customer and Utility Impacts of Emerging Technologies.”
• Ethan Barquest will present evaluation results that illustrate the effectiveness of income eligible programs in reaching targeted low-income customers and helping them overcome the barriers to purchasing high efficiency lighting in “Is this thing on? Low Income Participation Behaviors in Upstream Lighting.”

For more information on the conference, please visit https://www.iepec.org/ or contact any of the Itron presenters attending IEPEC. We hope to see you there!