Winter Edition 2021

Keeping Spirits Bright!

Season’s Greetings and Best Wishes for a Happy New Year

As the holiday season approaches and 2021 draws to a close, we want to take a moment and send our warmest holiday wishes to our friends and colleagues. At Johnson Consulting Group, we had another outstanding year, working with our clients and team members on a variety of unique research and evaluation projects. We missed seeing you in person, as the Zoom meeting backgrounds became all too familiar.

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So, we look forward to catching up with you in person in 2022, whether it is at an industry conference, a networking get-together or an overdue coffee break. In the meantime, the staff from Johnson Consulting Group sends you our warmest thoughts and best wishes for a happy and prosperous new year.

 

Best regards,

Dr. Katherine Johnson, President

“Heating up in the Northwest”

We had a busy and exciting year working on three new projects with energy efficiency organizations in the Northwest. Our projects included:

  • Conducted the Ductless Heat Pumps (DHPs) 2020 Long-Term Monitoring and Tracking Report which measures the progress of the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance’s initiatives to promote ductless heat pumps in residential homes throughout its service territory. This work built on our previous investigation of DHPs installations across the United States and Canada.
  • Completing the first market assessment of NEEA’s Pumps and Circulators XMP program. We are wrapping up the final report assessing the effectiveness of NEEA’s pilot initiative promoting high efficiency pumps and circulators in the commercial HVAC market in the northwest. The report will be published in January 2022.

We also have two other projects in the works with NEEA and the Energy Trust of Oregon. Updates will be posted in our Spring 2022 newsletter.

EM&V Framework Review

Did you ever wonder how many EM&V frameworks are currently used in North America? In our review, we discovered 11 different EM&V models—all with varying levels of oversight by regulatory agencies, stakeholder collaboratives, and independent EM&V experts.

Our comprehensive review identified three different structures currently used in Canada and eight different models in the United States. This review, completed on behalf of EfficiencyOne (Nova Scotia) also included input from 16 subject matter experts. We will share these critical findings in upcoming conference presentations in 2022. 

Season of Renewal!

This year we were also fortunate to continue our long-term relationships with several clients. Working with Cadmus, we will continue to conduct the process evaluations for the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) of its low-income single and multi-family programs. These annual process evaluations have documented the tangible successes of DHCD’s partnership with eight Maryland gas and electric utilities in reaching the most vulnerable residents. 

We are honored to continue serving as the Independent Evaluation Monitor (IEM) in Arkansas. In this role, we have assisted the Parties Working Collaboratively establish Arkansas as a leader in the Southeast in EM&V practices. The AR TRM 9.0 serves as a major resource for multiple Southern States. In 2022, the seven Investor-Owned-Utilities will develop new program portfolios that explore DER technologies both behind-the-meter and in-front-of-the-meter (Commission Order 13-002-U 62) as part of new potential study launched in early 2022. It’s going to be another exciting year!

Should old acquaintances be forgot …

The New Year brings new opportunities and fond farewells. We bid adieu to Lisa Pftzinger, BHEA, as she retires in 2021 and begins the next chapter. Lisa has been a dear friend and colleague throughout the past 12 years in Arkansas and she will be missed at the PWC.

I also want to extend my special thanks to several colleagues who have been instrumental in our success this year: Gary Ambach, Karen Heater, Gay Cook, Lionel Lansbury and Veronica Kyle. And special thanks to the Arkansas IEM Team for their ongoing support: Jim Bradford, Bill Goodrich, Gregg Eisenberg, Afroz Khan, Jake Millette and Eric O’Neal. We are so fortunate to work with these superb industry professionals. Thank you for your insights, guidance, and expertise on our projects and we look forward to more successes in 2022. 

Where in the World is KJ (Virtually)

Fun Stuff

Katherine escaped the cold weather in Maryland to enjoy a seven-day Caribbean cruise. Her adventures included:

  • Horseback riding in the Bahamas (horses gallop when they are in the water).
  • Diving with(reef) sharks in Bimini: She went on two shallow dives. Her second dive included a school of reef sharks looking for a quick bite.
  • Sliding down waterfalls in the Dominican Republic: Splish-splashing down 27 waterfalls was a welcome break after a two-mile hike in the jungle.
  • Click here to link to photos. Click here for photos and video.