The Process Loads technology category encompasses a wide range of energy in non-residential services excluding general lighting, space conditioning, domestic water heating, appliances, and building envelope. This category is broadly focused on projects that will lead to expanded incentive program offerings (energy efficiency or fuel substitution) and/or the establishment of new codes and standards. High priority is given to projects that can provide significant savings in avoided GHG production and/or demand flexibility.
The Research Initiatives tables below describe the most important topic areas these technology research areas should be focused on, and the simplified icons indicate where the topic areas stand along the path of progression to technology transfer. The tables are meant to encourage research projects to fill the current gaps and advance the topic areas on the technology transfer path of progression.
High Understanding |
Research in Progress |
Immediate Needs |
Future Research Needed |
CalNEXT expects to take on most or all of the work and cost burden.
CalNEXT has highlighted this technology family as having moderate overall impacts within the Technology Category.
The controlled environment horticulture (CEH) technology family encompasses a combination of lighting and non-lighting equipment used to produce agricultural products in CEH spaces. This includes the lighting systems, such as lighting design strategies, lighting control systems, and lighting technologies, as well as non-lighting equipment such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and dehumidification (HVAC/D), precision nutrient monitoring, irrigation systems, pumps, and controls systems associated with maintaining environmental conditions for growing.
Note: Horticultural lighting is no longer covered by the horticultural lighting technology family (Lighting TPM).
| Research Initiatives | Performance Validation | Market Analysis | Measure Development | Program Development |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced Environmental Controls and Equipment for CEH |  | |  | |
| Thermal Energy Storage | | | | |
| Performance Optimization and Demand Flexibility Options for CEH |  | | | |
| Performance Standards and Building Codes | | | | |
*Table above is not exhaustive. More technologies and controls are mentioned below.
CEH is an emerging industry with intensive energy and water use. While there may be many low tech, low energy intensity greenhouses, recent estimates emphasize the impact high energy intensity greenhouses and indoor production facilities have on industry-wide energy use. Recent studies estimate the energy use intensity of CEH at 9.3 to 27.9 kWh/ft² (100 to 300 kWh/m² per year), with increasing interest in adoption for production of conventional agricultural crops such as leafy greens and tomatoes. HVAC/D comprises a significant portion of the overall energy consumption, accounting for 60–80 percent of the total energy use in greenhouse farming and 30–50 percent of total energy use in indoor vertical farming, with lighting systems consuming most of the remainder. The most significant, proven opportunities for this technology family are for energy savings and demand flexibility.
Increased energy efficiency is the largest opportunity in this industry. The CEH market has seen rapid expansion, resulting in a significant amount of inefficient system designs. Currently, most energy- efficiency opportunities are implemented through deemed lighting measures, or custom HVAC/D savings programs, highlighting an opportunity for deemed EE measures to increase the scale of adoption of efficient HVAC/D products which are prevalent in most CEH facilities. While the recent wet winters in California have brought the state out of a drought, there remains long-term drought risk for the region as well as the related embodied energy impacts of water itself. Efficient fertigation controls and water reuse may present growing opportunities for energy savings.
Regarding lighting, key drivers of energy savings include increasing the efficacy and productivity of horticulture through optimization of system designs, controls, spectral light distributions, light source innovations, and reducing negative impacts from light pollution. While code requirements and efficiency standards are catching up on light source efficacy, the focus of horticultural lighting as an emerging technology (ET) should be on system design and controls to unlock largely untapped savings. Innovations in sensor and control strategies can maximize energy performance and demand flexibility by using spectral tunability and harvesting daylight. Efficient and productive indoor growing enabled by horticultural lighting could also have both direct and indirect GHG reduction advantages over the open-field growing practices. Another non-energy benefit is the potential to reduce light pollution when lighting is deployed with thermal blocking curtains in greenhouses.
Demand flexibility benefits can be added via scheduling-based system designs and powering the lighting system or HVAC/D systems from renewable energy, thermal storage, or embedded electrical energy storage. Increased demand reduction and demand flexibility from this technology family would have a significant impact on relieving the grid stress at the distribution level. However, the opportunity for demand flexibility will be highly dependent on the appetite of growers to fluctuate indoor growing conditions i.e., through manipulating vapor pressure deficit or daily light integral, and their ability to cost-effectively incorporate demand management strategies into common horticultural system design.
There are opportunities for the development of industry standards through organizations such as ASHRAE and the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), particularly in regard to performance standards of existing facilities. Sizing guides, test procedures, and commissioning guidelines specific to CEH HVAC/D systems would enable programs and codes to use uniform efficiency ratings for CEH HVAC/D systems. Finally, incorporation of solar photovoltaic (PV) production into greenhouses has a strong potential for agrivoltaics to help sites drive to net-zero, particularly when paired with heat pumps.
Rapid expansion of indoor agriculture has resulted in inefficient system designs, a lack of targeted efficiency programs, and the need for systems with higher efficacy and greater power quality. Technical barriers are largely related to system design. There is a lack of clarity for designers and trusted tools for optimizing productivity and efficacy of horticultural lighting systems as well as limited understanding of the interactive impacts of schedule, space conditioning, HVAC/D, and watering rates. Lighting control strategies, including automatic spectral tuning and tracking daily light integral, are still new concepts to most growers, and their performance is not well quantified or accepted by growers. As such, controls are yet to be as widely built into horticultural lighting systems as their counterparts in architectural lighting. Spectral tuning, while not likely to generate additional energy savings, could serve as a catalyst to breaking down growers’ hesitancy in adopting efficient light sources and controls by offering promising potential for higher crop yield. Market barriers for lighting and non-lighting systems include the lack of confidence due to uncertain cost-effectiveness, limited in-field evaluation of innovative technologies and controls, and lack of best practice designs from experienced practitioners, considering both performance and cost.
While the individual technological components in HVAC/D are well established from development in other sectors, they remain in a nascent stage with respect to CEH. Standards bodies have yet to develop uniform horticultural HVAC/D testing methodologies or efficiency ratings to account for the different horticultural environments which severely limits market understanding. There are no sizing guides or commissioning guidelines specific to CEH HVAC/D systems like those available for conventional commercial HVAC systems. Additionally, the horticultural design industry lacks experienced practitioners of efficient systems. Workforce education and training (WE&T), as well as conducting research and collecting field data to validate scalable incentive programs is needed to support broader adoption of cost-effective, high-efficiency systems.
An additional barrier is a lack of energy use intensity data specific to California CEH. Without this data, building codes cannot develop a performance model for CEH facilities. Furthermore, lighting efficacy codes and standards are more effective at influencing new facilities, but there are a large number of existing facilities that will take more time and need more assistance to make that transition.
Research should focus on activities that help build knowledge among both growers and utilities, including:
Outputs from these research topics would help alleviate growers’ hesitancy in trying different technologies or growing practices for fear of lower yields and income.
CalNEXT is interested in collaborating and co-funding projects.
CalNEXT has highlighted this technology family as having high impacts within the Technology Category.
The commercial kitchen decarbonization technology family focuses on process load electric equipment and systems typical in commercial kitchens i.e., at cafes, fast food, and sit down restaurants, and institutional foodservice facilities i.e., hospitality and cafeterias, with emphasis on conversion and replacement of gas cooking equipment.
Note: Commercial kitchen systems that are non-process loads are included in other TPMs. Grocery display cases and remote-condensing systems are covered under the refrigeration, commercial technology family within this Process Loads TPM. Also, related water heating topics are covered under the Water Heating TPM and the steam and hot water systems technology family within this Process Loads TPM.
| Research Initiatives | Performance Validation | Market Analysis | Measure Development | Program Development |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Electric Foodservice Equipment for Gas Equipment without Historical Electric Alternative (Woks, Tandoor Ovens, Rack Ovens, Rotisseries) | | | | |
| Economics of Foodservice Electrification | | | | |
| Hard-to-Reach (HTR)/Disadvantaged Community (DAC) Engagement on Foodservice Electrification | | | | |
Commercial kitchens are incredibly energy intensive, consuming five to seven times the energy density of other types of buildings, which presents significant energy savings potential. There is also a tremendous opportunity to decarbonize these facilities, as kitchen natural gas consumption makes up approximately 23 percent of all commercial building gas usage despite being only a small fraction of the square footage. While technologies exist to electrify many pieces of commercial cooking equipment, there are several commercial cooking equipment technologies that are still mainly gas fueled. In addition to equipment development opportunities, there are opportunities to quantify cost and demand impacts of electrification and resolve economic barriers associated with commercial kitchen decarbonization. The commercial foodservice industry in California is still dominated by gas-fired cooking equipment, presenting a large opportunity for decarbonization in this technology area.
With the CPUC Decision 23-04-035, commercially viable electric alternatives for commercial kitchen cooking equipment will need to be developed, shifting CalNEXT focus for commercial kitchen equipment towards decarbonization. Within this growing emphasis on electrification, research should focus on demonstrating emerging electrified products such as electric woks and tandoor ovens as well as demonstrating and assessing the cost-effectiveness of deeper electrification retrofits at the full cook line level. Co-benefits of electrification, such as faster cleaning time, improved indoor air quality (IAQ), and reduced cooling and ventilation needs should continue to be validated, especially within existing facilities. For maturing technologies, CalNEXT should continue to conduct research that can feed into development of new deemed measures and standards. Additional research should focus on resolving major industry barriers associated with commercial foodservice electrification, such as end user reluctance to use electric cooking technology, incremental equipment costs, operating costs, and infrastructure upgrade costs. While the focus of this technology family will be on decarbonization and electrification, equipment with high EE potential will still be considered, as well as equipment that has secondary electrification in a fully electrified kitchen such as heat recovery dish machines, drain water heat recovery, and kitchen hoods with advanced controls.
Despite the strong opportunities and technical maturity of foodservice equipment, this sector faces significant barriers to electrification and needs both more resources and larger structural changes to advance decarbonization opportunities. Market understanding has improved as programs are now targeting distribution channels and retailers to ensure ENERGY STAR® products are widely available in like-for-like equipment replacements. However, this sector is still in an early stage for decarbonization activities. Some cooking equipment, such as broilers, woks, and rack ovens do not have proven electric appliance alternatives yet, requiring industry development of electric cooking equipment to suit the entire foodservice industry’s cooking equipment needs.
An additional barrier is that electrical infrastructure upgrades for all-electric kitchens can present significant costs to business owners and add substantial load to the grid at peak load times. Operating costs using current rate structures can double or triple when comparing gas to electric cooking equipment, as electric foodservice equipment typically operates using resistance or induction technology with smaller comparative efficiency benefits to other electrification technologies such as heat pumps.
There are larger structural issues such as energy rates being misaligned with decarbonization efforts, tenant-owner split incentives, inability to conduct long-term facility planning, resistance from health departments, language barriers for many restaurant service professionals, thin profit margins within the restaurant sector, and resistance to electrified cooking. Potential barriers research should focus on developing case studies, educational opportunities, and design guidelines to familiarize market actors with all aspects of the fossil fuel transition. Analysis to identify costs to electrify and explore potential solutions to economic barriers will also be helpful projects in advanced commercial kitchen decarbonization. Most opportunities will be supported by resolving the major cost barriers associated with commercial kitchen electrification.
CalNEXT is interested in collaborating and co-funding projects.
CalNEXT has highlighted this technology family as having high impacts within the Technology Category.
This technology family focuses on commercial and industrial cooling, refrigeration, and freezing systems serving stationary applications in agriculture, food sales, foodservice, commercial kitchens, laboratories, cold storage warehouses; and refrigeration and freezing systems for food, materials, pharmaceuticals, and other manufactured product applications. It also includes refrigerated transportation distribution from manufacturing facilities and packaged refrigeration systems.
| Research Initiatives | Performance Validation | Market Analysis | Measure Development | Program Development |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natural Refrigerant Condensing Units (CO2, Propane and Other Emerging Natural Refrigerants) | | | | |
| Low-GWP Drop-in Refrigerants for Retrofit Applications | | | | |
| Natural Refrigerant (Ultra-Low-GWP) C&I Refrigeration System Modeling Tools | | | | |
| Refrigerant Management and Leak Monitoring, Detection and Mitigation | | | | |
Commercial and industrial refrigeration lies at the nexus of energy efficiency, demand flexibility, and GHG reductions. Savings opportunities abound, with many existing products and methods widely used to improve efficiency. Emerging products and methods can further increase savings. Process integration — where waste heat from cooling may be utilized for heating uses, thereby reducing cooling and heating demand (potentially by incorporating industrial heat pumps) — is a significant opportunity for savings, especially with natural refrigerant CO2 systems which operate at higher working pressures.
Refrigeration loads can also be reduced through enhanced envelope design, incorporation of phase change materials (PCMs), and adaptive controls for more precise load matching. PCMs can be pre-cooled to save energy using cooling towers, advanced evaporative cooling, and other methods. Advanced adaptive controls can optimize load shifting schedules and strategies dynamically, which provides additional peak demand savings compared to traditional static setpoints.
On the supply side, modulating compressor controls and optimized suction and head pressures and temperatures should be implemented when possible. Multi-compressor and multi-suction systems could be employed when demand and/or operating temperatures vary widely. Additional opportunities for energy savings include condenser optimization with fan controls, water flow rates, parallel compression, passive and mechanical subcooling, multi-gas ejectors, improved heat rejection strategies, and temperature reset based on ambient conditions, including advanced sub-wet bulb evaporative cooling.
Demand flexibility opportunities are significant since the cooling in many cold rooms can effectively be shifted to periods outside of demand emergencies, periods with lower electrical demand costs, periods that coincide with onsite solar electricity production, and periods with lower grid electricity carbon intensity. Additionally, load shifting opportunities can be achieved with thermal energy storage.
Emerging low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants and natural refrigerants are beginning to replace legacy refrigerants, in response to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) and California Air Resources Board’s (CARB’s) phase out of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants. Future studies should focus on gathering and evaluating data to better understand opportunities and barriers in support of market transformation, new measure characterization, and EE program development. Field demonstrations and lab testing of innovative technologies should seek to provide the industry with actionable and scalable results, as well as document best practices. As new refrigerants emerge, there is a need for pilot installations and energy modeling to evaluate changes in cooling capacity, energy performance, and operational standards. Research should explore charge size reductions, refrigerant recycling programs, and leak mitigation and monitoring strategies to help inform life-cycle assessment (LCA) and decarbonization opportunities. Finally, collaboration with other programs can create a clear pathway for technical and financial resources to support this broad transition and actualize the opportunities.
Barriers include capital costs, safety concerns, regulatory challenges, changing product quality, retail sales, and workforce concerns. As OEMs’ chemical companies respond to federal regulations, equipment performance, energy impacts, and system applications for some new technologies are not well understood. New product costs are high to cover the research and development, slowing market adoption. Workforce training is needed as the refrigeration technician workforce shrinks. Opportunities to support training and certification for technicians with new low GWP and natural refrigerant technologies should be considered to expand industry knowledge.
Market understanding, standard industry practices, and technical performance of ETs can be obscured by the site-specific customization needed for each implementation. For this reason, sales and maintenance are often limited to a short list of SMEs and specialized contractors. As a result, the value proposition and product risk concerns may be derived from unvalidated tools, general manufacturer application guidelines, and a limited perspective of a SME contractor’s experience. To improve market understanding and technical performance, studies should establish and build on a common knowledge pool of design, decision making, and implementation of new EE technologies to encourage development of small, specialized groups (inside or outside SME contractors) that can bridge knowledge gaps for the broader market. Additional emphasis should be given when studies include analysis, demonstration, and market feedback on systems that use ultra-low and natural GWP refrigerants.
Currently, IOU program intervention is limited to the custom incentive process, which frequently demands considerable investment in sub-metering and an understanding of industry standard practices for developing these applications. New programs should develop standardized baselines and measure programmatic impacts across delivery types. To enhance program intervention, studies should be conducted on industry standard practices for major industrial refrigeration processes.
CalNEXT is interested in collaborating and co-funding projects.
CalNEXT has highlighted this technology family as having moderate overall impacts within the Technology Category.
The advanced motors technology family is focused on advancing electric motors and drive systems that exceed the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) premium efficiency standards with a strong emphasis on enhancing advanced electric motor technology market awareness, increasing equipment stocking and adoption, and supporting scalability.
| Research Initiatives | Performance Validation | Market Analysis | Measure Development | Program Development |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motor Controller (VFD) Requirements for the Different Advanced Motor Designs | | | | |
| Differentiate and Catalog Advanced Motor Options | | | | |
| Load Profile of Common Electric Motor Loads | | | | |
| Supply Chain Readiness (Non-Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)) | | | | |
Advanced motors have tremendous energy savings opportunities. A recent Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) motor market assessment estimates an annual United States (U.S.) energy savings of 482,000 GWh/year.1 However, the savings opportunity of adopting advanced motors is not well known in the marketplace.
To develop this opportunity, CalNEXT activities should focus on: 1) California-specific market research to identify the market share, availability, and applicability of advanced motors; 2) research to better understand key market actors and the customer experience, the contractor experience, and current relevant manufacturer and supplier activities; 3) opportunities to educate distributors and train contractors; 4) documenting the full spectrum of benefits associated with advanced motors; and 5) demystifying the VFD product requirements for different advanced motor technologies and the commissioning needs to ensure high performance.
While advanced motors have secured a foothold in the U.S. at 1.5 – 2.0 percent market share, primarily as components within OEM equipment, there are significant market barriers preventing widespread adoption. Technologically, advanced motors are commercially available and, in some instances, directly substitutable for standard induction motors. Other instances may require additional controls or engineering support for the motor to work properly with an existing or new VFD. The California investor-owned utilities (IOUs) found 13 advanced motor case studies and identified nine advanced motors from five manufacturers that can be substituted for traditional induction motors and provided detailed comments on a recent standards rulemaking.2 However, common practitioner knowledge still lags the technical opportunity as does program activity within California. Many consumers are not aware of the higher-efficiency options or are reluctant to use a new product over a familiar technology with a much simpler replacement process.
In addition, advanced motors are not currently regulated by NEMA, which makes it difficult for consumers to directly compare these advanced options with standard induction motors. While manufacturers of motor-driven equipment such as pumps and fans are incorporating advanced motors and drives into new equipment designs, it is unclear how these motors will be replaced in the future or how existing equipment packages can be retrofitted with these advanced motors as the supply channels are not well understood by utilities.
CalNEXT is interested in collaborating and co-funding projects.
CalNEXT has highlighted this technology family as having moderate overall impacts within the Technology Category.
This technology family is focused on a holistic approach to design and optimization advancements of all pumped liquid systems across process-based market segments, aimed at achieving peak efficiency and demand flexibility.
Note: Depending on the project scope, prospective projects related to pumping systems may fit better under the advanced motors technology family within the Process Loads TPM, or pool heating and circulation within the Water Heating TPM.
| Research Initiatives | Performance Validation | Market Analysis | Measure Development | Program Development |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hot Water Circulation Pumps Should Be on Timers Set to Building Occupancy Hours | |  | | |
| Application of Pump Controls for Water Distribution Systems for Commercial, Agricultural, and Industrial End Uses | | | | |
| Expand Pump Energy Index (PEI) Awareness and Understanding of Savings Potential for Industrial, Commercial, and Agricultural Customers | | | | |
Pumping systems are among the largest family of electricity consuming systems in the C&I sector and are generally well understood and broadly used across market segments. Transmission, distribution, and pressurization of clean water makes up seven percent of the total net energy use in California.
Nominal improvements in pump design efficiency and appropriate use of specific pumps based on the needs of the system can produce grid-wide energy savings. Advanced pump designs can be paired with advanced motors to achieve greater energy efficiencies in conjunction with advanced pump monitoring and data analytics. These systems can provide optimized operation and control response beyond the standard practice of variable speed, volume, or pressure sensing technology. Improving market understanding of the PEI metric through education and outreach, could also help end users select more efficient options.
Technologies impacting pump demand, including end-use management, dynamic setpoint feedback controls, and other advanced load management controls will improve overall pump system performance and responsiveness during grid events.
Technologies do not have to focus solely on pump efficiencies; relevant tangential technologies that fit into this TPM include energy recovery turbines, revised system designs to reduce pump discharge head pressure requirements, and greenfield systems designed to use static head pressure from gravity in place of pumps.
The technical performance of pumps and pumping systems is generally well understood and there have been national EE standards covering most pumps since 2020. These standards introduced the PEI, a performance metric that has since been adapted for the California Electronic Technical Reference Manual (eTRM). Market knowledge contextualizing lifecycle costs to PEI may be less developed. While there is significant potential for energy savings via advanced pumping solutions, facility operators, and by extension customers. have shown reluctance in adopting these newer pumps. This may be in part due to a lack of familiarity and higher capital costs. A market assessment or a customer survey to get a better understanding of why this hesitancy exists is required.
For critical process or infrastructure systems such as process pumps in a refinery or a potable water distribution pump, energy efficiency may be a secondary or tertiary consideration, with reliability and performance taking the priority. Risk averse operators may be more open to switching to more efficient systems when reliability and lower operating costs can be effectively demonstrated.
Proposed studies or projects should incorporate research around the identified barriers to market adoption. Projects could focus around offering new and novel pump technologies, identifying lifecycle cost savings, or increasing productivity through better pump controls such as pressure or volume controls to vary pump drive frequencies.
CalNEXT is interested in collaborating and co-funding projects.
CalNEXT has highlighted this technology family as having moderate overall impacts within the Technology Category.
The data centers and enterprise computing technology family focus on energy-using equipment related to the functioning of dedicated information technology (IT) facilities. This includes servers, storage, and networking IT equipment; other typical equipment such as power distribution units (PDUs) and uninterruptable power supply (UPS) systems; as well as specialized systems for airflow management and cooling.
| Research Initiatives | Performance Validation | Market Analysis | Measure Development | Program Development |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liquid Based Cooling Systems | | | | |
| Demand Side Management | | | | |
| Waste Heat Recovery | | | | |
Data centers use significant amounts of energy, making up about two percent of electrical energy use worldwide and trending upward. IT equipment itself makes up the bulk of the energy use, accounting for nearly 60 percent of energy consumption, with the remainder used for cooling. Most large IT equipment, including storage, servers, LNE, and UPS, now have ENERGY STAR product labelling, However, there are no national EE standards for this equipment except for computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units, although some are in the works. Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) has an initiative on data center efficient cooling. ASHRAE has developed liquid cooling guidelines as well. Open compute has guidelines for liquid cooling as well.
There is an opportunity for demand side management (DSM) to optimize resource allocation for underutilized servers. Average server utilization rates are typically under 20 percent and automated software is available to make more effective use of existing servers as opposed to adding new servers.
There is potential for energy savings of up to 95 percent by utilizing liquid cooling compared to traditional CRAC. Aside from energy savings, liquid cooling also simplifies waste heat recovery. There are opportunities to utilize waste heat by co-location of data centers with district heating networks or other heating applications such as localized space heating or water heating. The use of thermal storage technologies has potential to unlock demand flexibility.
Data centers are well-researched, especially traditional hot-aisle and cold-aisle CRAC and computer room air heating (CRAH) systems. Despite the prevalence of ENERGY STAR products, there are no deemed rebate measures in this sector and no appliance standards (from U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) or Title 20) outside of CRAC units. Statewide water supply concerns are driving aversion to evaporative cooling in lieu of less efficient air-cooled systems. Meanwhile, ETs such as liquid-based cooling face significant barriers to scale from code compliance, product availability, downtime concerns, and practitioner familiarity. Research to develop code compliance pathways for liquid-based systems will be beneficial to provide a viable pathway toward these scalable impacts. While server utilization monitoring has tremendous savings potential, it requires a monthly subscription, making it difficult for standard program delivery models outside of behavior, retro-commissioning, and operational (BRO).
CalNEXT is interested in collaborating and co-funding projects.
CalNEXT has highlighted this technology family as having low relative impacts within the Technology Category.
The process air systems technology family focuses on equipment that alters air flow or pressure for the purpose of using air as a working fluid. This includes blowers and fans that may be used to transport heat, fumes, or particulate, and air compressors and vacuum generators used to modify air pressure to perform useful work. This technology family also includes: 1) treatment of air streams using separators, filters, and dryers; 2) air distribution infrastructure such as ducts, pipes, fittings, and storage; and 3) control devices used to manage air pressure or flow.
| Research Initiatives | Performance Validation | Market Analysis | Measure Development | Program Development |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compressed Air System Monitoring and Controls | | | | |
| Compressed Air End-Use Management System | | | | |
There are opportunities for blowers and fans to use aerodynamic blade designs, low blade rotational speeds, and larger blade lengths that have a higher fan efficiency and use less energy. Part-load efficiencies can be improved by utilizing sensors combined with a VFD to control the fan or blower speed instead of throttling devices. Motor loads can be further lowered by reducing frictional losses in the ductwork and isolating intermittent system users with blast gates or louvres.
For compressed air, energy savings resulting from the use of low pressure drop air treatment equipment, efficient dryers, engineered nozzles, and leak repairs are well documented. Compressed air distribution systems are often undermaintained and overlooked when it comes to reducing energy use. Improving outreach and education for compressed air system operators and users about the inefficiencies in compressed air systems presents an energy savings opportunity. Installing and automating solenoid valves that shut off air when not needed can also dramatically reduce compressed air system energy use. Improving access to affordable leak audits would increase the likelihood of improved system maintenance, but only if repairs are promptly performed. Research should therefore be focused on training programs and technologies that lead to lower air demands and higher system efficiencies.
Technical understanding of industrial fans are mature, as the product category has been federally covered since 1992 and standards have been updated following a finalized test procedure in May 2023.6 The new test procedure codifies Fan Energy Index (FEI) as a new performance metric that has been adopted in the California Energy Code and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard 90.1, but has not yet been adapted for programs in the eTRM.
Technical understanding of compressed air systems is also mature, and technical barriers to EE opportunities are minimal. The primary barriers to upgrading existing systems are the lack of practitioner expertise within industrial facilities and the relatively high capital replacement costs. California utilities have been active in developing industrial energy codes (Title 24, Part 6) for compressed air systems, first developing and introducing requirements into the 2013 version, and most recently developing updates for the 2022 version. Programs focused on improving code compliance and supporting the transformation of existing underperforming systems should be investigated to inform industry standard practices. Aside from plant replacement, facilities would benefit from expansion of maintenance programs to identify, locate, and fix leaks within their distribution systems or the deployment of technological solutions to automatically alert facilities staff to leaks or other system performance issues.
In addition to the California Energy Code (Title 24, Part 6), other governing bodies and standards exist for process air systems, including those related to occupant and operator health and safety. For example, fan or blower speeds for a process air system may be restricted by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) or Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards, of which customers may not even be aware. Developing succinct guidance on the limits imposed by non-energy related codes and standards as it relates to process air systems would therefore help system operators navigate energy saving system improvements while ensuring they stay within regulatory compliance.
CalNEXT will track progress but encourage external programs to take lead in unlocking these opportunities.
CalNEXT has highlighted this technology family as having moderate overall impacts within the Technology Category.
The process heating technology family focuses on processes that dry raw materials, preheat process equipment or materials, and cure or stabilize produced goods. This applies to manufacturing processes for chemicals, plastics, glass, and more, as well as to agricultural process heating. This may include but is not limited to industrial steam and hot water systems such as electrically heated hot water and steam generation systems, electrification of steam and hot water heating systems traditionally fueled by natural gas, as well as the ancillary equipment and optimization of downstream end uses such as steam trap fault detection devices. Heat recovery technologies are included as part of the process heating technology family.
Note: This technology family excludes process heating used in commercial and residential steam and hot water, as well as heating for foodservice equipment which are covered in other technology family TPMs.
| Research Initiatives | Performance Validation | Market Analysis | Measure Development | Program Development |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Industrial Heat Pump Technologies | | | | |
| Heat Recovery Technologies | | | | |
| Advanced Controls for Energy Savings | | | | |
| Electrification of High Temperature Processes | | | | |
Over the last three decades, many industrial processes were switched from electricity to natural gas as a power source due to lower energy costs and sometimes due to perceived environmental benefit (where the grid was dominated by coal power plants). There is now significant decarbonization opportunity in capturing greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction benefits of a cleaner grid.
Applications that use electric resistance or natural gas for drying, preheating, and production could realize EE opportunities to improve performance and decarbonize from natural gas, for example, by replacing gas drying with industrial microwave dryers or heat pumps. Variable load processes could benefit from controls, including demand flexibility integration. Hot water systems could also have pumped storage to assist with demand flexibility. Energy-efficiency projects should target scalable and generalizable electric heating improvements that reduce or eliminate unneeded heating. This includes controls, equipment design, insulation, heat recovery, and combinations of these with operational modifications and production timing.
Other opportunities may include adoption of heat pumps for high-temperature (greater than 70°C) applications that require higher temperature delivery than can be provided by typical commercial HVAC equipment. Many low-temperature hot water end uses could be electrified using commercially available technologies. However, cost-effectiveness has not yet been justified in many scenarios within California. Successful demonstrations of cost-competitive industrial heat pumps in California will support the nascent U.S. industrial heat pump market. Other energy saving strategies include improved pipe insulation, appropriately sized heating coils, leak mitigation strategies such as automated fault detection diagnostics, and incorporating advanced controls. Heat pumps and heat recovery chillers can provide process heating more efficiently than fossil fuel combustion or electric resistance systems and have the potential to recover waste heat from nearby cooling loads.
For high-temperature water and steam systems, deployment is already happening in international markets with the International Energy Agency’s (IEA’s) Annex 58 highlighting promising demonstrations of this technology. Meanwhile, the U.S. market remains in an early piloting pre-commercial phase. Increased federal funding from both the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the IRA will bolster commercialization of industrial heat pump technology to help address this market gap. State policies, such as the recent CPUC Decision 23-04-035 to phase out utility gas incentives, further demonstrate broad interest in developing the industrial heat pump market.
Beyond system electrification and energy efficiency, field studies for low cost, deployable technologies should be evaluated for scalable program integration, including technologies such as waste heat recovery, controls, and automated fault detection and diagnostics.
Modern electric resistance heating equipment and controls provide accurate temperature control. However, industry perceptions based on old technology control challenges persist as a barrier to adoption. Currently, process heating systems are primarily designed for natural gas fueled supply equipment, in part due to the higher associated operating temperatures. As a result, market understanding of efficient electrified heating is in an early stage, and it is expected that both designers and facility managers will be reluctant to switch to electric equipment without significant incentive support and specialized electric rates. Additionally, technology and fuel switching related deployment costs are high due to relatively low industrial process market saturation.
Many industrial processes are historically competitive on operational costs with respect to energy utilization and process improvement. Thus, high-quality, energy-efficient manufacturing equipment will be expected to quickly advance to the general market. At this point, the greatest barrier to converting from natural gas to electric heating is energy cost. California has set a goal of deploying dynamic pricing by 2030 and with continued large-scale renewables build-outs, there will be opportunities with low electric energy costs. Projects that investigate energy efficiency and fuel switching to electric heating technologies could include consideration of time-of-use (TOU) rate structures and localized renewable generation resources.
Process heating industries are also generally slower to change due to the high costs of retrofitting the manufacturing process and adoption of innovative technologies. However, these industries have also been impacted by high commodity costs, which presents opportunities for testing novel controls that limit demand charges and TOU costs, warranting further exploration of high-temperature thermal energy storage deployed during peak expense TOU periods. There is additional opportunity to address the demand charges and TOU costs that severely impact industrial end users by developing processes and programs that directly help those industries cope with higher and less predictable energy costs while boosting efficiency, demand flexibility, and decarbonization.
Please refer to the Emerging Technologies Coordinating Council for a complete list of active and completed projects to ensure your project is not duplicative.