NEWS FROM TEPRI
OCTOBER 2022
Fall is the season when Texans emerge boldly from summer hibernation. Festivals, concerts, football games, bike races, all bloom throughout the state. The season is an energetic one, and TEPRI is launching into fall with a new Strategic Plan, an exciting line-up of projects, and the release of our Low-Income Energy Relationship Survey, which represents the cornerstone of our work to understand the interests, concerns and priorities of the people we serve.
Our 2023-2025 Strategic Plan positions TEPRI to more actively engage with communities and test solutions that can support an equitable energy transition, as the state integrates more diverse sources into our energy composition. For example, TEPRI will be demonstrating how virtual power plant technology, which utilizes solar and battery storage to provide clean, affordable, and reliable energy, can be utilized on affordable multi-family housing for the benefits of lower-income customers. We will also be partnering with Brownsville Community Development Corporation, to drive down the cost of solar by installing panels on modular, manufactured homes in the Valley to evaluate the benefits. Both of these projects will identify potential pathways to helping low-income families fulfill their energy needs with affordable, reliable and clean energy.
TEPRI’s work is informed by on the ground input from people in the communities we serve. Our most comprehensive research entails large scale surveying of households throughout the state. Because the different geographies represent unique interests, we do discrete analysis on the 13 energy districts that have been delineated by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA). Our surveying, which reveals customers salient interests around energy, is bolstered by focus groups in each region that help us to better understand survey revelations. We layer what we learn with external data that allows us to map out the distinct needs and characteristics of the different regions in the state. This initial research results, called our Low-Income Energy Relationship Report, will be available in summer 2023. Our goal is that TEPRI’s work, and the work of our partners, will be more effective as it is informed by the people it is aimed to support.
We look forward to a fruitful season of productivity and partnership!
Warmly,
Margo
NEWS FROM TEPRI
TEPRI's 2023-2024 Strategic Plan
TEPRI Board of Directors approved our 2023-2025 Strategic Plan earlier this month. With funding from the Energy Foundation, we launched a strategic planning initiative in January 2022 and the final report synthesizes months of research and feedback from stakeholders.
The strategic planning process highlighted the growing interest in equitable energy solutions, which has been amplified by the Justice40 Initiative. Our new mission, strategy, and impact areas are intended to leverage this opportunity and be cognizant of trends to be forward-looking in our development of solutions that address the needs of low-income people.
While the plan includes both internal and external goals, and discusses key trends, such as Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), we wanted to share a brief summary of our updated mission and strategy. We are passionate about our direction and our more active stance to develop and demonstrate new models that we believe will have a more powerful impact on the people we serve.
OUR STRATEGY: Advance research on the energy needs of low-income consumers, develop solutions to address those needs, and establish a network of on the ground relationships to enable deployment.
- Produce original and seminal research on LMI households’ relationship with energy;
- Build out and strengthen community networks throughout the state;
- Develop and demonstrate new models intended for scale
OUR MISSION: TEPRI advances equitable solutions for affordable, reliable, and clean energy so all people can thrive.
OUR IMPACT AREAS:
- Affordable: Decrease energy burden for LMI households;
- Reliable: Improve energy resilience, and address energy access in an outage;
- Clean: Increase parity in clean energy technology access and adoption.
New Project: Piloting a Virtual Power Plant
TEPRI is excited to announce that the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation are supporting the pilot of a virtual power plant (VPP) project for an affordable housing development in Texas.. This is the first step in expanding LMI households’ access to a promising distributed energy resource technology, as well as a way to showcase the value of VPPs in Texas.
VPPs have tremendous potential to stabilize the grid, expand the use of clean sources of energy, optimize energy use and cost, and provide a reliable energy source to residents during an outage. VPPs can optimize the timing of when to deliver solar power to residents, when to sell locally generated electricity to the grid at a premium, and when to store excess electricity (for the purposes of both local consumption and sale to the grid). The profits from VPP operation can then be reinvested into the system to reduce operational costs, creating a more affordable opportunity for renewable energy.
This project will provide renewable energy opportunities to low-income, multi-family housing communities. We are currently seeking partners from affordable housing developers in both Harris County and Galveston County, and virtual power plant companies who are interested in working with us to pilot this concept. Our aim is to accelerate the move towards an energy system that is distributed, affordable, reliable, and sustainable to promote healthy, thriving communities.
Prioritizing Energy Efficiency Implementation
The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) hosted its biannual Energy Efficiency Implementation Project (EEIP) meeting in October to review current progress and rules around energy efficiency and to gather feedback on improving utility energy efficiency program in Texas. Participant engagement was robust, with representatives from utilities and across the energy sector. Central to the discussions included recommendations for reaching more low- and moderate-income households through the programs and expanding access to distributed energy resources (DERs).
TEPRI was delighted to hear Oncor’s Energy Efficiency and Compliance Manager Jean Perez present on the success they have had with E4-TX.org – the geo-eligibility tool that TEPRI developed and licenses out to Oncor to help make qualifying low-income households more seamless. Early signs show that Oncor has been able to serve a greater number of low-income households with their programs as a result of the greater ease in qualifying homes.
A strong energy efficiency plan is critical to Texas being able to provide affordable and reliable energy. The state set over 11 peak demand records this past summer. The state’s current energy demand is projected to increase by 9 gigawatts by 2030, which is equivalent to powering close to 2 million homes. With rising energy costs, this could cause high energy cost burdens for low-income families. Effective energy efficiency programs can play a meaningful role in lowering household bills.
Participants also heard presentations from Oncor and Sierra Club that included ideas for expanding energy efficiency programs throughout the state. The PUCT will continue to collect feedback and host discussions. Follow this link to sign up and receive information about how to be involved.
Energy Opportunities Coalition Cohort 2 Report Released
TEPRI convened the Energy Opportunities Coalition (EOC) as one way to collaborate across sectors to achieve TEPRI’s mission of advancing equitable energy solutions for affordable, reliable, and clean energy to underserved communities so all people can thrive.
The EOC Cohort 2 met eleven times from March through September 2022. Cohort 2’s work was divided into two phases. In Phase 1 from March through May, the group focused on building relationships and generating shared definitions and knowledge around energy equity concepts. In Phase 2 from June through September, the EOC transitioned to brainstorming a project to pursue together to meet the group’s shared goal of supporting an equitable energy transition with low-income households in Texas.
This report summarizes the EOC Cohort 2’s approach and insights and presents a proposed project to meet EOC members’ shared goal of advancing energy equity with low-income Texans. Access the report here.
TEPRI Launches New Website
We’re thrilled to announce that TEPRI launched its new website this month. Please visit TEPRI.org to take a look!
TEPRI IN THE COMMUNITY
Margo Weisz participated in SPEER’s Policy and Industry Workshop on September 26th. Her panel discussed low-income energy efficiency barriers and solutions. Margo presented about the challenges that households with lower incomes face around the cost burdens of energy. She detailed how cost burdens manifest themselves and how different demographics struggle with unique challenges. Margo provided maps of how TEPRI geographically details the states energy hot spots for cost burdens and discussed some of the exciting projects we are working with energy efficiency, virtual power plants, and roof-top solar to address the issue.
Andrew Robinson (TEPRI Research Analyst) presented key demographic and energy burden data during the August 30th San Antonio City Council Meeting to inform the council members on the benefits of energy efficiency investments, particularly in low-income communities. The council members were weighing how to utilize a CPS Energy budget surplus as part of their greater budget planning process. Click here to watch the remarks.
