Brattle Consultants Author Report for Pepco on Benefits and Costs of Climate Solutions Plan

In a new report prepared for Pepco, “Pepco’s Climate Solutions 5-Year Action Plan: Benefits and Costs,” Brattle consultants assess the benefits and cost-effectiveness of the 62 programs included in Pepco’s Climate Solutions 5-Year Action Plan. The report is the last in a series of Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia (DCPSC) filings detailing the electric utility’s proposed plan to help Washington, DC meet its decarbonization, electrification, clean energy, and energy efficiency goals.

The Brattle-authored report compares Pepco’s Climate Solutions Plan (CSP) programs – which include efforts to reduce overall usage of electricity, natural gas in buildings, and gasoline in transportation – to the broad range of energy system and emissions benefits that the plan will provide. The authors determined that the CSP has a net present value of $154 million over the 20-year study horizon, with $225 million in program costs resulting in $379 million of energy system and societal emissions benefits. The plan is estimated to produce $1.68 in quantified benefits for every $1 spent by Pepco on the CSP’s programs.

The authors find that major drivers of the CSP’s benefits are electricity cost and emissions savings due to a substantial energy efficiency portfolio, and reduced gasoline costs and emissions driven by increased electric vehicle (EV) adoption due to charging infrastructure deployment.

The benefits analyzed include avoided costs due to changes in energy use from a variety of sources (electricity, gasoline, and diesel for transportation, and natural gas and other fuels for heating buildings) as well the social benefits of reductions in both carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and criteria air pollutants. Brattle’s experts found that major drivers of the CSP’s benefits are electricity cost and emissions savings due to the substantial energy efficiency efforts, as well as reduced gasoline costs and emissions driven by increased electric vehicle (EV) adoption due to charging infrastructure deployment.

Based on the results of the benefits cost analysis, by 2027 the CSP will:

• Result in 105 gigawatt-hours of net energy reduction, or 1.1% of 2020 system-wide electricity sales;
• Reduce system-wide peak electricity demand by 35 megawatts, or 1.8% of 2020 system-wide peak demand;
• Reduce natural gas consumption by 571,000 million British thermal units, which is equivalent to the annual consumption of over 1,000 average-sized commercial buildings;
• Reduce gasoline consumption by 5 million gallons, the equivalent annual consumption of over 15,000 light-duty vehicles; and
• Result in the overall reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 95,000 metric tons, or the equivalent GHG footprint of over 11,000 residential homes.

The Brattle report is authored by Principals Ryan Hledik and Dr. Sanem Sergici, Senior Associate Michael Hagerty, Lead Analyst Matt Witkin, and Research Analysts Julia Olszewski and Sharan Ganjam. Brattle consultants also prepared a report for Pepco in August 2021 related to the District’s decarbonization goals that assessed the impacts of a large-scale electrification initiative on the Pepco DC power system.