Quality control is a big issue in energy efficiency. Absent adequate follow-up inspections and customer surveys, how do program managers know that money allocated to recommended measures has been well spent?
The short answer is, they don’t.
In an interim report released today, the Energy Department's inspector general warns that $242 million in federal funds to weatherize homes in Illinois has been anything but a good investment.
In fact, program is failing at many levels.
According to a story on Greenwire (http://tiny.cc/ydFmH), the DOE report says the State of Illinois “has failed to inspect any weatherized units completed by seven of the 35 local agencies carrying out the work.”
Illinois also has failed to implement a system for tracking the findings, and has not completed the required 5 percent follow-up inspections of DOE-funded weatherized units.
Similar reviews are currently being conducted in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the story noted.
EnerPath Services, Inc. (http://www.enerpath.com/) a Redlands-based company that specializes in managing large-scale energy efficiency programs, makes a point of conducting post-inspection surveys as a part of every job.
For example, as part of the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power’s highly successful Small Business Direct Install program, EnerPath’s auditors and contractors have received a 99 percent customer satisfaction rating. That’s pretty impressive, given the size of the program (more than 27,000 small businesses enrolled since the program’s inception in 2008).
EnerPath’s program for the LADWP is further evidence that large-scale energy efficiency programs just don’t work without proper oversight and expert management.
