In consultation with the Program Administrator Staff, Energy Division Staff, and TF and PAC Members, Cal TF Staff develops templates, checklists, guidelines, and other tools to facilitate the development of high-quality energy savings estimates and measures.

STATEWIDE DEEMED MEASURE DEVELOPMENT

Templates & Tools

Statewide Measure Characterization Template (v6.4, updated March 5, 2026): Template with instruction prompt and boilerplate text to complete the measure characterization content

Statewide Measure Development and QA/QC Guidelines (v3.0, updated September 3, 2025): Data dictionary and requirements of the permutation data specification fields and the measure characterization sections

Statewide Measure Development Style Guide (v3.0, updated February 25, 2022): Editorial and stylistic conventions — such as voice, word usage, units of measurement, common terminology, and abbreviations — to facilitate standardization and consistency

Exclusion Table Examples (updated August 26, 2021): Examples of common exclusion rules

Workflow Conventions and Standards “Cheat Sheet” for Measure Contributors (v3, updated October 20, 2023): Conventions and standards for the measure development/update process

Measure Development Trainings

Measure Developer Resources SharePoint hosts various measure development training sessions, measure update instructions, tools, and statewide processes for deemed measures.

eTRM Measure Contributor YouTube playlist contains a series of short How-To videos on how to complete certain tasks as measure developer and other measure contributors

OTHER DEEMED MEASURE RESOURCES

Statewide Deemed Workpaper Rulebook (Version 4.0)

The Statewide Deemed Workpaper Rulebook (Rulebook) presents a compendium of the current CPUC directives for estimating ex ante savings claims for energy efficiency measures using the deemed savings calculation method. The Rulebook represents the investor-owned utilities’ (IOUs) understanding of the CPUC’s rules and requirements for claiming energy savings from installed energy efficiency measures.

Refrigerant Avoided Cost and Fuel Substitution Calculator

In 2019, the CPUC issued the Fuel Substitution Technical Guidance for Energy Efficiency on the methods and procedures to analyze fuel substitution measures. This document explains how to determine a fuel substitution measure baseline, explains the fuel substitution eligibility test, and how to calculate the cost effectiveness and report energy savings. The Fuel Substitution Calculator (FSC) supplements the Technical Guidance document and should be considered an interim tool for use in performing the Fuel Substitution Test and calculating energy savings for cost effectiveness analysis and reporting.

In 2020, the CPUC developed and adopted (D.20-04-010 and D.21-05-031) the Refrigerant Avoided Cost Calculator to assess refrigerant related costs and benefits of deemed measures that add new refrigerant-using-equipment to the grid (e.g., replacing gas equipment with heat pump). The tool utilizes avoided costs (i.e., avoided energy production costs) to assess the net present value in dollars of refrigerant emissions over the equipment lifetime.

In 2024, the Refrigerant Avoided Cost Calculator (RACC) and Fuel-Substitution Calculator (FSC) are combined into one single RACC-FSC tool since most fuel substitution measures involve the use of refrigerants. The latest technical guidance and tool can be found at Supporting Files - CEDARS or CPUC Energy Evaluation Public Comment (energydataweb.com).

Deemed Measure Training

The California Public Utilities Commission and the California investor-owned utilities have held various training events to introduce third-party implementers to the tools and information needed to develop deemed measure , clarify the roles and responsibilities for measure development, and describe the process and timing for review and approval of measures. The documents and recordings from these events are available below:

Full day training sessions in November 2018: <site no longer available>
Workpaper Q&A in April 2019: Slide Deck

Deemed Measure FAQs

The California Program Administrators have documented the questions and responses (FAQs) related to the development of deemed measures. Southern California Edison maintains and posts these FAQs on the EE Programs Solicitations Information & Resources webpage.

Workpaper Archive

The CPUC approved workpapers and associated measures can be found on the Deemed Measure Archive - CEDARS. The workpapers found at this website were approved by the CPUC through the end of 2021.