MAISY RECS Hourly Loads & Emissions Databases
 

Question 3. What Applications are Supported with the New MAISY RECS Hourly Loads and Emissions Databases?

Short Answer: Energy Information Administration (EIA, part of the US Department of Energy) RECS surveys provide energy-related information for a national sample of residential households. Occupant, dwelling unit, appliance, and energy use data are provided for each household in the sample.

The 2020 RECS survey includes more than 18,000 households and for the first time includes a state identifier enabling state-level analysis. The final EIA dataset was published in June 2023. Individual RECS household whole-building 8,760 hourly loads and emissions have been developed and are now available.

     MAISY RECS Databases are an extension of the original EIA RECS databases that
  • Add three new important data categories
    • 8,760 kW whole building hourly loads for each household
    • 8,760 kW hourly loads for 7 end-use categories for each household including space heat, AC, water heating, refrigerator/freezers, appliances (clothes dryer + oven+ dishwasher + clothes washer + microwave), lighting+TV and all other end uses
    • Total household emissions and emissions for each energy type
  • Include 96 of the most used RECS data items
  • Add weather adjusted heating, air conditioning and ventilation energy use to reflect 30-year averages
  • Improve customer experience by providing mnemonics rather than integer coded responses (e.g., elec instead of 5) and

Longer Answer: Household 8,760 Hourly Load Extensions. This hourly load data extension uniquely provides new analysis capabilities by connecting household income, demographics, structure, and appliance characteristics to 8,760 whole building and end-use hourly kW loads. These insights are important for:
  • Manufacturer/retailer product development, market potential analysis, target marketing
  • Retail electricity provider market potential, profitability and target marketing
  • Smart grid technology design and analysis
  • Utility demand response and smart grid program design and analysis
  • Micro-grid product development and analysis
  • Utility service area energy demand and peak kW forecasting
  • Utility substation and transformer energy peak kW forecasting based on dwelling unit cohort characteristics
  • State public service commission regulatory analysis of utility programs
  • Populating agent-based microsimulation models to support forecasting and policy analysis
These new insights inform decisions related to solar, battery storage, smart grid technologies and programs, load control technologies, utility incentive programs, utility service area, substation and circuit peak demand forecasts and other applications that incorporate household hourly loads and peak kW characteristics.

Longer Answer: Household GHG (Greenhouse Gas) Emissions Extensions. The addition of household emissions provides a new fertile ground for analysis and policy program evaluations. GHG emissions associated with each household energy source provide emissions insights not previously available in RECS surveys. MAISY RECS household emissions estimates are based household energy use by fuel type and EPA ZIP and state emissions data.

Emissions analysis applications include:
  • Assessment of emissions impacts associated with state and federal appliance fossil fuel restrictions
  • Forecasts of future emissions based on growth rates of household cohorts
  • Estimation of Scope 3 (downstream) emissions for corporate and government organizations including financed emissions for mortgage providers.
  • Populating agent-based-microsimulation models to support emissions policy analysis.
Jackson Associates also provides consulting support for these analyses applications.

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