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At least 397 records · Page 22

The Science Training Program for Young Italian Physicists and Engineers at Fermilab

Since 1984 Fermilab has been hosting a two-month summer training program for selected undergraduate and graduate Italian students in physics and engineering. Building on the traditional close collaboration between the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) and Fermilab, the program is supported by INFN, by the DOE and by the Scuola Superiore di Sant`Anna of Pisa (SSSA), and is run by the Cultural Association of Italians at Fermilab (CAIF). This year the University of Pisa has qualified it as a “University of Pisa Summer School”, and will grant successful students with European Supplementary Credits. Physics students join the Fermilab HEP research groups, while engineers join the Particle Physics, Accelerator, Technical, and Computing Divisions. Some students have also been sent to other U.S. laboratories and universities for special trainings. The programs cover topics of great interest for science and for social applications in general, like advanced computing, distributed data analysis, nanoelectronics, particle detectors for earth and space experiments, high precision mechanics, applied superconductivity. In the years, over 350 students have been trained and are now employed in the most diverse fields in Italy, Europe, and the U.S. In addition, the existing Laurea Program in Fermilab Technical Division was extended to the whole laboratory, with presently two students in Master’s thesis programs on neutrino physics and detectors in the Neutrino Division. And finally, a joint venture with the Italian Scientists and Scholars North-America Foundation (ISSNAF) provided this year 4 professional engineers free of charge for Fermilab. More details on all of the above can be found below.

Barzi, Emanuela↗

Will the Measurement Robots Take Our Jobs? An Update on the State of Automated M&V for Energy Efficiency Programs

Trustworthy savings calculations are critical to convincing regulators of both the cost-effectiveness of energy efficiency program investments and their ability to defer supply-side capital investments. Today’s methods for measurement and verification (M&V) of energy savings constitute a significant portion of the total costs of energy efficiency programs. They also require time-consuming data acquisition. A spectrum of savings calculation approaches is used, with some relying more heavily on measured data and others relying more heavily on estimated, modeled, or stipulated data. The rising availability of “smart” meters and devices that report near-real time data, combined with new analytical approaches to quantifying savings, offers potential to conduct M&V more quickly and at lower cost, with comparable or improved accuracy. Commercial energy management and information systems (EMIS) technologies are beginning to offer M&V capabilities, and program administrators want to understand how they might assist programs in quickly and accurately measuring energy savings. This paper presents the results of recent testing of the ability to use automation to streamline some parts of M&V. Here in this paper, we detail metrics to assess the performance of these new M&V approaches, and a framework to compute the metrics. We also discuss the accuracy, cost, and time trade-offs between more traditional M&V, and these emerging streamlined methods that use high-resolution energy data and automated computational intelligence. Finally we discuss the potential evolution of M&V and early results of pilots currently underway to incorporate M&V automation into ratepayer-funded programs and professional implementation and evaluation practice.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Contech to Accelerate Cleantech: Seeding Emerging Innovation Programs for Construction Productivity and Energy Efficiency Integration; Preprint

Investments in U.S.-based start-ups that focus on advanced building construction technologies to increase construction productivity (contech) surged to approximately $3.1 billion in 2018 (as per Crunchbase data). More recently, emerging programs by government funding agencies, philanthropic foundations, and venture capitalists have been instrumental in supporting contech start-ups for innovations that increase productivity of energy efficiency integration and accelerate clean energy technologies (cleantech) for the buildings sector. These programs include R&D support and funding mechanisms for contech and cleantech. Traditionally, contech and cleantech are considered as two different innovation ecosystems. To enhance and scale up energy efficiency in buildings, creative programs that bring together contech and cleantech are critical. This paper provides a landscape assessment of the "contech-for-cleantech" innovation ecosystem in the U.S. and its impact in accelerating technology readiness and the development pipeline of "contech-for-cleantech". Technologies highlighted are robotics for retrofits, prefabrication of energy-efficient products, and advanced manufacturing of low-carbon net-zero buildings construction. Programs discussed include those led by (1) government funding agencies: American-Made Challenges with prizes like E-ROBOT for retrofits with robotics, (2) philanthropic foundations: Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2) that includes focus on energy efficiency and prefabrication, and (3) venture capitalists: Shadow Ventures Green Building Accelerator program which provides funding support to start-ups with ambitious plans for decarbonizing the built environment. This paper will also expand upon robust processes and criteria involved in judging and down-selection of start-ups through vetting and feedback from national lab researchers and industry experts in both cleantech and contech.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Engaging a Diverse Workforce in the Building Sciences Through the JUMP Into STEM Program: Impact Study; Preprint

Ensuring inclusivity in building science professions requires engaging people from underrepresented demographics; unfortunately, many races, ethnicities, and genders continue to be underrepresented. The JUMP into STEM program works to rectify this, encouraging creative ideation and highlighting the unique perspectives of a diverse array of students. The top students are awarded internships that provide opportunities to work in building science research with close supervision from mentors in the field. In the research presented here, we investigate the impact of participation in JUMP into STEM on students' careers, including the impact on students from diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, we research students' awareness of career opportunities in building science, students' perception of their ability to meaningfully contribute to this field, and the career building opportunities that JUMP into STEM provides for students. Through participant interviews and data analysis, we measure program diversity, inclusion, and effectiveness at achieving goals. We find that among the hundreds of students who have participated in this program, more than 25 different majors and/or educational degree programs are represented and more than 45% of students attend minority serving institutions or historically black colleges and universities. The JUMP into STEM experience had a significant effect on career choices or career development for more than 80% of participants. Our results also indicate that the JUMP into STEM program is effective at promoting diversity in the building sciences and is successfully contributing to the larger effort within the building science industry to promote and ensure equity in technological progress and innovation.

building energy science↗

Evolution of Energy Efficiency Programs Over Time: The Case of Standby Power

Issued in 2001, Presidential Executive Order 13221 directed federal agencies to purchase products with low standby power, with the goal of 1) reducing energy consumption in federal facilities, and 2) drawing attention to the problem of high standby power consumption, with guidance provided by the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP). At that time, standby power was newly recognized as an increasing building energy load. Since then, procurement of products with low standby power have been set in place in acquisition processes, and the purchasing power of the federal government continues to influence manufacturers’ design decisions related to standby power. In recent years, FEMP has shifted effort from direct manufacturer outreach for data collection, to integrating low standby requirement into broader acquisition programs including Energy Star and Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT). Another milestone has been the labeling of low standby products on the GSA Advantage website to simplify and enhance compliance. Looking forward into the program’s future, this question arises “How do we design programs over time to reflect market and technology changes, by adjusting programmatic requirements while maintaining effectiveness?” This paper discusses that question for the case of standby power, which transitioned from covering a single to multiple environmental attributes, both in the context of the program’s past and future.

Payne, CT↗

URS/WTP's Future Leader Program and AECOM's Early Career Professional Technology Exchange - 17239

URS Energy and Construction, Inc. (URS), a subsidiary of AECOM, is the Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI) teaming subcontractor on the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) Project. Recently, the WTP Project has begun a transition toward facility turnover and commissioning. With that transition came the hiring of staff for the startup and commissioning workforce. With many of these individuals being Early Career Professionals (ECPs), URS recognized a need to create and implement a workforce development program to give these professionals the skills to thrive in a professional environment and provide a sense of community to improve talent retention. The result of this recognition of need was the creation of URS/WTP Future Leaders. This paper will share the successes and lessons learned related to founding the URS/WTP Future Leaders. This includes establishing programs such as the Continuous Learning Workshops, Rotational Program, and implementing a mentor program. In addition, establishing a budget and obtaining support from Human Resources will be discussed. By March 2017, the ECP program will have been in effect for approximately two years. As a separate effort, many of AECOM's major waste remediation contractors have started having Early Career Professional Technology Exchanges (ECP TE) in an effort to create collaboration between sites and to establish industry contacts that will continue to be a resource for years to come. Washington River Protection Solutions, LLC; URS/WTP; Savannah River Remediation, LLC; and Nuclear Waste Partnership, LLC have conducted ECP TE, with each site hosting an event. For these events, each participant prepares a presentation and answers questions on the presentation topic. This allows ECPs to practice presentation skills, develop skills in answering questions from their peers and management, and be the expert in the room on a particular topic. Tours of the onsite facilities also are given as a way for ECPs to gain a broader understanding of the waste remediation industry and the challenges that other sites are facing. Accomplishments, lessons learned, and future plans for ECP TE will be discussed. The ECP TE events allow AECOM, as the parent company, to provide a unique learning opportunity to the next generation of engineers within the DOE nuclear field and to ensure the safe operations of these nuclear sites for years to come. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

The U.S. DOE-EM international program - 15026

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) conducts international collaboration activities in support of U.S. policies and objectives regarding the accelerated risk reduction and remediation of the environmental cleanup legacy resulting from the nations' nuclear weapons program and government sponsored nuclear energy research. The EM International Program, supported out of the EM Office of the Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary pursues collaborations with foreign government organizations, educational institutions and private industry to assist in identifying technologies and promote international collaborations that leverage resources and link international experience and expertise. The primary objective of the International Program is to work closely with the various technical program offices within EM (e.g., tank waste and nuclear materials management, groundwater and soil remediation, deactivation and decommissioning) to identify collaborative opportunities related to innovative technologies, as well as best management practices, that support successful completion of the EM mission. This objective is directly aligned with the current DOE Strategic Plan 2014 - 2018, issued in April 2014. In mid-fiscal year (FY) 2014, the International Program awarded several collaborative projects for work scope spanning waste management, tank waste management, groundwater and soil remediation, deactivation and decommissioning (D and D), disposal operations, and nuclear materials disposition initiatives to nine foreign organizations. These projects include both technical and non-technical activities, with opportunities for continuation into FY 2015 and beyond. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Post-closure program streamlining at the Nevada national security site - 15290

More than 200 sites on the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR), and Tonopah Test Range (TTR) have been closed in place. At these sites, contamination has been left in place, and protection of human health, safety, and the environment is ensured through the establishment of use restrictions (URs). Post-closure requirements were initially established in the Closure Report (CR) for each site and include a variety of inspection, monitoring, maintenance, and reporting commitments. Post-closure requirements and site controls (fences, monuments, soil covers, and postings) may vary depending on site location, accessibility, land use scenario, and the nature of contaminants left in place. Corrective Action Sites (CASs) on the NNSS, NTTR, and TTR have been identified for closure under the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (FFACO), which was signed in 1996. Over 1,900 CASs have been closed under the framework of the FFACO, and more than 200 of those have URs. Many post-closure requirements have been modified over time. In addition, because the scope of the program has spanned almost 20 years, the post-closure requirements have varied due to changing strategies and expectations. Because of the number of sites closed over the course of the program, post-closure requirements are found in hundreds of closure documents, addendums, errata sheets, Records of Technical Change, inspection reports, permit modifications, and correspondence. Furthermore, resources such as personnel and funding necessary to conduct the post-closure program have diminished, while computer capabilities and configuration control principles have improved since closure activities under the FFACO began. Because of these factors, to effectively manage the post-closure program, ensure that all commitments are being met, and improve the ease of identifying the most current post-closure requirements for each UR, the current requirements for every use-restricted site under the purview of the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office will be consolidated into a single Post-Closure Plan. The Consolidated Post-Closure Plan will also outline a strategy and present possible criteria that may be used for future evaluation of post-closure requirements. Continual assessment of the post-closure program will ensure that the post-closure requirements for URs across the NNSS, NTTR, and TTR are consistently justifiable and sufficient to protect site workers, the public, and the environment while increasing efficiency. Future changes to post-closure requirements and justification for those changes will be recorded in revisions to the Consolidated Post-Closure Plan. This process will provide a comprehensive, consistent, and streamlined method for evaluation of post-closure requirements and implementation of changes. (authors)

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Repository planning for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste: insights from U.S.. and international programs - 15638

For decades, the United States and other nations with nuclear programs have been planning for permanent disposition of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste, to address the increasingly difficult problem of storing these materials for the long term. These plans are complicated by issues ranging from technological factors to regulatory approaches and public concerns about health and environmental protection. In its 2012 report, the Blue Ribbon Commission (BRC) on America's Nuclear Future identified a number of recommendations for creating a safe, long-term solution to the nation's problem of managing and disposing of its spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste. These include a recommendation that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revise its standards for a high-level waste repository. The EPA is currently reviewing and synthesizing literature relevant to such standards, including: (1) existing national and international standards and guidelines for repositories; and (2) benefits and barriers to such standards, including limitations related to current technologies, as well as siting, licensing, and construction processes. This paper highlights findings of this literature review and synthesis. More than 90 countries, from Albania to Vietnam and Yemen, were identified as potential sources of relevant information based on existing nuclear programs or consideration of such programs to address future energy needs. Pursuant to the BRC recommendations, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has compiled extensive information resources relevant to spent fuel and radioactive waste repositories in the Centralized Used Fuel Resource and Information Exchange (CURIE) database developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Further valuable sources of information include annual proceedings of recent Waste Management Symposia, which provide insights into recent trends and progress across various national and international programs. Recent literature from a number of countries, including the United States and Canada, and the United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden, France, Germany, and other countries in Western Europe, as well as other regions including Australia, indicates that consent-based siting has emerged as a dominant theme. In addition to effective siting processes, key program needs identified in the literature include regulatory standards and performance context, as well as reliable technologies and engineered systems, such as for deep drilling and assured safe containment of these radioactive materials extending into the very long term. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Panel Session 62: Progress on Deep Repository Programs Around the World

This panel session focused on the progress of deep repository programs, worldwide. While efforts on a deep geological repository for SNF/UNF and HLW in the USA were terminated in 2010, several other repository programs continue to make considerable progress and deserve to be recognized. Panelists were invited from national, multi-national, and international repository programs and organizations to report upon the status and future as well as the perceived reasons underlying the success and the failure of components of their respective repository program. This panel provided a forum for interested parties to present, exchange, and take advantage of, as appropriate, repository progress, challenges, concepts/designs and other lessons learned around the world, including site characterization, site selection, research and development, licensing, construction, operation, and public acceptance and participation. Presentations proposed include: 1 - Cigeo (French Deep Geological Repository Project) update 2018 (Daniel Delort, Andra (France)); 2 - Progress on Deep Geological Repository Programs Around the World (Bruce McKirdy, Radioactive Waste Management (United Kingdom)); 3 - Geological disposal facility in Belgium (Didier Leonard, ONDRAF/NIRAS (Belgium))

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Preliminary Design of the TEX-MOX Criticality Experimental Program using Optimization Algorithms Implemented in the IRSN PROMETHEE Tool

In the frame of its missions, IRSN is widely involved in design, evaluation and analyses of critical experiments in order to contribute to computer codes and nuclear data validation. The work described in this paper was carried out in the framework of the PRINCESS IRSN research project and is part of the IRSN/LLNL collaboration on the TEX program in the frame of the NCSP. The need for epithermal and intermediate energy range critical benchmarks is an established international criticality safety data need, underpinned by the subsequent use of data assimilation methods like GLLSM to reduce Nuclear Data uncertainties. The goal of the TEX program is to address this need by executing experiments with NCSP fissile assets, which can be used to create critical assemblies that span a wide range of fission energy spectra, from the thermal energy range (below 0.625 eV), through the intermediate energy range (0.625 eV to 100 keV), to the fast one (above 100 keV). The TEX program involves different materials of interest, such as TEX-Ta experiments using plutonium ZPPR plates proposed by LLNL. This paper presents an overview of the studies performed at IRSN using numerical optimization algorithms for the design of critical experiments involving Mixed U and Pu fuel plates, referred to as TEX-MOX program. This program ultimately aims to perform critical experiments to validate the MOX fuel configurations encountered in the MOX fuel fabrication process. (authors)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Developing a Supply Chain Security Program

Amid growing concerns over foreign manufacturing for components and devices deployed in critical energy infrastructure, this research from the national labs will highlight best practices for developing and maintaining a supply chain security program. Tools for asset inventory, tips for developing and maintaining software- and hardware-bills-of-materials (SBOMs and HBOMs), recommended contractual language for vendor agreements, and identification of responsibilities will be shared. We discuss the one-time requirements to enable a successful supply chain security program and the best ways to operationalize this program for maximum impact, including development of robust practices for vulnerability tracking, patch management, and workarounds, with understanding of the reliability and uptime requirements for utilities. The recommendations shared are based on a cyber-informed engineering approach to identification of high-consequence impacts and the engineering controls related to supply chain management that can best mitigate these impacts. This approach allows for prioritization of resources. Additionally, we highlight relative up-front and ongoing costs associated with recommended controls. Viewers will leave with an understanding what a supply chain security program is, and what steps, prioritized for resource-constrained organizations, can build a robust program.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Generating and Analyzing Program Call Graphs using Ontology

Call graph or caller-callee relationships have been used for various kinds of static program analysis, performance analysis and profiling, and for program safety or security analysis such as detecting anomalies of program execution or code injection attacks. However, different tools generate call graphs in different formats, which prevents efficient reuse of call graph results. In this paper, we present an approach of using ontology and resource description framework (RDF) to create knowledge graphs for specifying call graphs to facilitate the construction of full-fledged and complex call graphs of computer programs, realizing more interoperable and scalable program analyses than conventional approaches. We create a formal ontology-based specification of call graph information to capture concepts and properties of both static and dynamic call graphs so different tools can collaboratively contribute to more comprehensive analysis results. Our experiments show that ontology enables merging of call graphs generated from different tools and flexible queries using a standard query interface. Index Terms—Callgraph, ontology, knowl

Dorta, E.↗

INTEGRATION OF DATA ANALYTICS WITH SYSTEM HEALTH PROGRAMS

Industry equipment reliability and asset management programs are essential elements that help ensure the safe and economical operation of nuclear power plants. The effectiveness of these programs is addressed in several industry developed and regulatory programs. However, these programs have proven to be labor intensive and expensive. There is an opportunity to significantly enhance the collection, analysis, and use of this information to provide more cost-effective plant operation. Additionally, there is an acute industry need to leverage advanced technology to reduce costs and improve operational effectiveness. The goal of this paper is to provide effective and efficient analytical methods and tools to support risk-informed decisions for the equipment reliability and asset management programs at nuclear power plants. This is accomplished by creating a direct bridge between component health/lifecycle data and decision making (e.g., maintenance scheduling and project prioritization). Here we are supporting typical system engineer decisions regarding maintenance activity scheduling and component ageing management. This is performed in a risk-informed context where herein the term “risk” is broadly constructed to include both plant reliability and economics. This framework combines data analytics tools to analyze equipment reliability data with risk-informed methods designed to support system engineer decisions (e.g., maintenance and replacement schedules, optimal maintenance posture) in a customizable workflow. A challenge is that the structure of this workflow strongly depends on the decision that needs to be made, the type of data available, and the constraints that need to be considered. Current methods are designed to provide specific answers to specific problems; however, these methods might prove to be inadequate even when problem settings slightly change (e.g., different types of requirements, additional dependencies between system reliability and economics). We tackled this challenge by designing framework in a flexible and modular fashion such that the user can assemble and customize his/her own workflow that integrates SSC economic lifecycle models (e.g., maintenance and replacement costs), system reliability models, and optimization methods.

97 - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Multistage distributionally robust mixed-integer programming with decision-dependent moment-based ambiguity sets

We study multistage distributionally robust mixed-integer programs under endogenous uncertainty, where the probability distribution of stage-wise uncertainty depends on the decisions made in previous stages. We first consider two ambiguity sets defined by decision-dependent bounds on the first and second moments of uncertain parameters and by mean and covariance matrix that exactly match decision-dependent empirical ones, respectively. For both sets, we show that the subproblem in each stage can be recast as a mixed-integer linear program (MILP). Moreover, we extend the general moment-based ambiguity set in to the multistage decision-dependent setting, and derive mixed-integer semidefinite programming (MISDP) reformulations of stage-wise subproblems. We develop methods for attaining lower and upper bounds of the optimal objective value of the multistage MISDPs, and approximate them using a series of MILPs. We deploy the Stochastic Dual Dynamic integer Programming (SDDiP) method for solving the problem under the three ambiguity sets with risk-neutral or risk-averse objective functions, and conduct numerical studies on multistage facility-location instances having diverse sizes under different parameter and uncertainty settings. Furthermore, our results show that the SDDiP quickly finds optimal solutions for moderate-sized instances under the first two ambiguity sets, and also finds good approximate bounds for the multistage MISDPs derived under the third ambiguity set. We also demonstrate the efficacy of incorporating decision-dependent distributional ambiguity in multistage decision-making processes.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Building Load Control Using Distributionally Robust Chance-Constrained Programs with Right-Hand Side Uncertainty and the Risk-Adjustable Variants

Aggregation of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) loads can provide reserves to absorb volatile renewable energy, especially solar photo-voltaic (PV) generation. In this paper, we decide HVAC control schedules under uncertain PV generation, using a distributionally robust chance-constrained (DRCC) building load control model under two typical ambiguity sets: the moment-based and Wasserstein ambiguity sets. We derive mixed integer linear programming (MILP) reformulations for DRCC problems under both sets. Especially, for the Wasserstein ambiguity set, we use the right-hand side (RHS) uncertainty to derive a more compact MILP reformulation than the commonly known MILP reformulations with big-M constants. All the results also apply to general individual chance constraints with RHS uncertainty. Furthermore, we propose an adjustable chance-constrained variant to achieve tradeoff between the operational risk and costs. We derive MILP reformulations under the Wasserstein ambiguity set and second-order conic programming (SOCP) reformulations under the moment-based set. Using real-world data, we conduct computational studies to demonstrate the efficiency of the solution approaches and the effectiveness of the solutions. Summary of Contribution: The problem studied in this paper is motivated by a building load control problem that uses the aggregation of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) loads as flexible reserves to absorb uncertain solar photovoltaic (PV) generation. The problem is formulated as distributionally robust chance-constrained (DRCC) programs with right-hand side (RHS) uncertainty. In addition, we propose a risk-adjustable variant of the DRCC programs, where the risk level, instead of being predetermined, is treated as a decision variable. The paper aims to provide tractable reformulations and solution algorithms for both the (general) DRCC and the (general) adjustable DRCC models with RHS uncertainty.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Analysis of Benefits Associated With Projects and Technologies Supported by the Clean Transportation Program

The California Energy Commission's Clean Transportation Program (CTP) supports a wide range of alternative, low-carbon fuel and vehicle projects. This report improves upon the 2014 Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program (ARFVTP) Benefits Report(the former name of the Clean Transportation Program), which focused on two components of benefit calculation: expected benefits and market transformation benefits. The "expected benefits" are defined as benefits that accrue because of the direct displacement of petroleum-based fuels or vehicle technologies. The "market transformation benefits" accrue because of CTP funding shifting the underlying market dynamics and accelerating the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles. This report documents the updated methods used in the benefits analysis in 2014 and applies them for this 2021 Clean Transportation Program Benefits Report. The project team used data collected from CTP projects funded from 2009 to the third quarter of 2021 to estimate the benefits between 2021 and 2030. CTP projects valued at $\$898.3 million$ were assessed (out of $\$1.04 billion$ funded) to estimate expected benefits of 249 million gallons per year petroleum reduction and 2.79 million metric tons per year of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction in 2030. Market transformation benefits are additive to the expected benefits and were estimated with high and low ranges for the 315 relevant projects evaluated. The market transformation benefits' GHG reductions are estimated as 2.2 million to 6.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year and the petroleum reductions as 145.3 million to 671.5 million gasoline gallon equivalents per year in 2030. Combining both benefit types, the CTP projects can make significant progress toward meeting California's long-term GHG and petroleum fuel use reduction goals.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Applying Social Science Methods to Assess and Improve Program Outcomes: A Case Study on the Gap Region Outreach Project

This paper outlines a replicable framework for assessing gaps, reach, and the impact of technical assistance (TA) programs, using the Energy to Communities (E2C) Gap Region Outreach Project as a case study. By applying qualitative social science methods, this framework provides tools for effectively engaging with underrepresented regions, identifying barriers to participation, and tailoring solutions to local needs. The study highlights the importance of leveraging stakeholder insights to address disparities in program engagement and participation, offering actionable recommendations to enhance program responsiveness and optimize resource allocation. This approach serves as a guide for practitioners seeking to expand the reach and effectiveness of federally funded TA programs while ensuring alignment with community priorities and capacity needs.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗