BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                    AB 1013


                                                                    Page  1





          Date of Hearing:  April 29, 2015


                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS


                                 Jimmy Gomez, Chair


          AB  
          1013 (Quirk) - As Introduced February 26, 2015


           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |Policy       |Utilities and Commerce         |Vote:|14 - 0       |
          |Committee:   |                               |     |             |
          |             |                               |     |             |
          |             |                               |     |             |
          |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------|
          |             |                               |     |             |
          |             |                               |     |             |
          |             |                               |     |             |
          |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------|
          |             |                               |     |             |
          |             |                               |     |             |
          |             |                               |     |             |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 


          Urgency:  No  State Mandated Local Program:  NoReimbursable:     
          No







          SUMMARY:








                                                                    AB 1013


                                                                    Page  2







          This bill expands the California Energy Commission's (CEC)  
          building standards provisions relating to public domain computer  
          systems.  Specifically, this bill:


          1)Requires CEC, before approving the public domain computer  
            program that estimates energy consumption, to perform  
            preliminary tests of the software and to make the results of  
            the tests publicly available.

          2)Requires CEC to ensure its computer program that estimates  
            energy consumption is available at least six months before the  
            effective date of adopted or updated building standards.

          3)Requires CEC to routinely adjust the software to improve  
            modeling accuracy for single-family residential dwellings and  
            multi-family residential dwellings with up to four units.

          4)Requires end-users of the public domain computer program to  
            provide consumers, along with the output of the energy  
            assessment tool, with a notice explaining how assumptions used  
            by the computer program may be different than actual energy  
            use.
          FISCAL EFFECT:


          Increased total annual costs of $972,000 to obtain data, develop  
          and maintain database systems, and identify the differences  
          between actual energy usage and tool estimates (Energy Resources  
          Program Account). This figure includes $472,000 for CEC to hire  
          staff and $500,000 for increased annual contracts.


          COMMENTS:


          1)Rationale.  CEC is required to continuously carry out studies,  








                                                                    AB 1013


                                                                    Page  3





            technical assessments, research projects, and data collection  
            directed to reduce wasteful, inefficient, unnecessary, or  
            uneconomic uses of energy.  As part of this requirement, CEC  
            adopts energy and water efficiency standards for appliances  
            and buildings.  CEC is also required to develop a public  
            domain computers program to estimate energy consumed by  
            residential and nonresidential buildings.



            Numerous programs offer consumers incentives or rebates to  
            purchase energy efficient appliances and construct or install  
            devices in residential and commercial buildings.  Before  
            participating in these programs, customers may undergo an  
            energy assessment to identify energy savings in their  
            buildings


            However, according to the author, the software tools approved  
            by CEC used to estimate energy usage are not sufficiently  
            accurate and consistently overestimate energy usage.


            This bill will improve the accuracy and availability of public  
            domain software programs to assist consumers in identifying  
            potential energy savings in residential and nonresidential  
            buildings.


          2)Energy Assessments and Ratings.   An energy assessment  
            examines opportunities in a particular building in order to  
            find potential energy saving upgrades.  Based on standard  
            assumptions of occupant behavior, ratings are used to compare  
            the energy efficiency of one building to others.  A variety of  
            software tools are available to perform assessments and  
            ratings, and some contractors have even created proprietary  
            in-house tools.  These methods involve inputting information  
            about a building into a building energy simulation program and  
            running the program to predict energy use.  Studies have  








                                                                    AB 1013


                                                                    Page  4





            raised concerns about the accuracy of energy analysis  
            software.  These studies found that software-based energy  
            analysis of inefficient existing homes tends to over predict  
            pre-retrofit energy use and retrofit energy savings.
            




          Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916)  
          319-2081