Page 220 - Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

194 Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

and changes in emissions from other sources, that result from those direct
changes in emissions.
2. The benefit of avoided transmission and distribution costs is that the energy
efficiency measures that reduce the growth in peak demand would decrease
the required rate of expansion to the transmission and distribution network,
eliminating costs of constructing and maintaining new or upgraded lines.
3. The benefit of avoided generation costs is that the energy efficiency
measures reduce consumption and hence avoid the need for generation.
This would include avoided energy costs, capacity costs, and a time and
date line.
4. The benefit of increased system reliability: the reductions in demand and
peak loads from customers opting for self-generation provide reliability
benefits to the distribution system in the forms of:
a. avoided costs of supply disruptions
b. benefits to the economy of damage and control costs avoided by cus-
tomers and industries who need greater than 99.9 level of reliable
electricity service from the central grid since these industries depend on
the electronics delivered from electrical systems
c. marginally decreased System Operator’s costs to maintain a percentage
reserve of electricity supply above the instantaneous demand
d. benefits to customers and the public of avoiding blackouts.
5. Nonenergy benefits: Nonenergy benefits might include a range of program-
specific benefits such as saved water in energy-efficient washing machines
or self-generation units and reduced waste streams from an energy-efficient
industrial process.
6. Nonenergy benefits for low-income programs: Low–income programs are
social programs that have a separate list of benefits included in what is
known as the “low-income public purpose test.” This test and the specific
benefits associated with it are outside the scope of the manual.
7. Benefits of fuel diversity include considerations of the risks of supply
disruption, the effects of price volatility, and the avoided costs of risk
exposure and risk management.

Strengths of the Total Resource Cost Test

The primary strength of the TRC Test is its scope. The test includes total costs
(participant plus program administrator) and also has the potential for
capturing the total benefits (avoided supply costs plus, in the case of the so-
cietal test variation, externalities). To this extent supply-side project evalua-
tions also include total costs of generation and/or transmission; the TRC Test
provides a useful basis for comparing demand- and supply-side options.
Since this test treats incentives paid to participants and revenue shifts as
transfer payments (from all ratepayers to participants through increased