The California Energy Commission's Consortium Residential Appliance Saturation And Unit Energy Consumption Study

For the first time in California, the large Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) pooled resources in 2003 and performed a RASS and Unit Energy Consumption (UEC) Study as a team. The project was administered by the California Energy Commission and sponsored by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). In 2008, the California Energy Commission provided funding for another Statewide Residential Appliance Saturation Study to be performed with the same utilities participating. Both Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric provided supplemental funding for additional households to be sampled from their respective territories. KEMA was the prime consultant.

The RASS effort has resulted in a research product that provides both statewide and utility-specific results. The study was designed to allow comparison of results across utility service territories, climate zones and other variables of interest (i.e. dwelling type, dwelling vintage, and income). The 2009 study includes results for 25,721 residential customers that are weighted to the population represented by the sponsoring utilities. The saturation results capture both individual and master metered dwellings. This rich set of customer data includes information on all appliances, equipment, and general usage habits. The study also includes a detailed conditional demand analysis that calculates unit energy consumption (UEC) values for all individually metered customers.

The most recent study was initiated in August 2008 and the sampling plans and survey implementation occurred throughout 2009. The results from the RASS study were used to develop a CDA model. This analytical method uses a combination of customer energy use with the responses from the customer survey to model end uses and develop unit energy consumption results for those end uses.

Feel free to browse the site and explore. All documents related to the project are available in the Document section below. The Saturation Tables tab allows users to perform interactive queries on the database. The UEC Tables tab allows users to access static UEC results. Please register as a first time user or sign in to obtain access to the results pages. The Saturation Tables tab and the UEC Tables tab will only appear after registration.