With new funding opportunities emerging from the federal Inflation Reduction Act and different state programs that incentivize existing building energy efficiency improvements, local communities can leverage these subsidies or rebates to boost the impacts of their new policies. To do this, understanding the impacts of these subsidies is vital to constructing the most effective policies.
The team has added subsidy data that complements the findings of the latest Existing Low-Rise Residential Cost-Effectiveness Study for single family homes and multifamily units, and has now extrapolated that data to a jurisdiction wide level!
For each measure analyzed in that study, the Explorer can now provide on a jurisdiction-wide basis:
The subsidy needed to reduce the measure cost to the point where it becomes cost-effective to the bill-payer, and
The subsidy needed to reach the point where a measure pays for itself in five years, and
These subsidy estimates calculated for the population of homeowners or occupants who meet low-income qualifications and pay lower utility rates (CARE customers).
Since these subsidies are specified based on your utility tariff, we want to draw your attention to an important new assumption. Assumptions are key factors that we use to calculate policy impacts, and we’ve added a new one! The “CARE Program Enrollment Rate” assumption determines how many units in your jurisdiction are enrolled in the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) program, and would fall under the subsidy columns titled “On-Bill Cost-Effective (CARE)” and “Payback in 5 Years (CARE). It is then assumed that the remaining units fall under standard utility rates and would fall under the subsidy columns titled “On-bill Cost-Effective” and “Payback in 5 Years”.
This assumption is automatically set to 13%, based on statewide census data. If you have more accurate information, you can directly input your data and watch the subsidy estimates update.
To explore this new capability, simply navigate to the Results page (for existing buildings only) and select the vintage(s) desired. Then select "Add/Hide Columns" in the top right to access the subsidy columns of interest (see image below).
To edit the assumed percentage of homes in your jurisdiction that fall under the CARE program, select “Edit Assumptions” in the top right, and scroll down to “CARE Program Enrollment Rate” and edit the percentage (see image below).
To learn more about subsidies, visit our comprehensive guide here!
If you have any questions , please contact us at explorer@localenergycodes.com.