A Texas Study of the Effects of the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act of 1987

Abstract

At the present time, no legislated efficiency standards exist in Texas for residential appliances. However, the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act (NAECA) of 1987 passed by the U.S. Senate in February, 1987, sets strict nationwide limits on the amount of energy which can be consumed by major new household appliances. The efficiency standards mandated by the NAECA will be phased in between 1988 and 1993 and will focus on space heating equipment, air conditioners, water heaters, refrigerators, and freezers. The first section of this report presents a brief discussion of the appliance standards mandated by the NAECA. Then a statewide version of EPRl's Residential End-Use Energy Planning System (REEPS) set up at the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) is used to estimate the impact that the legislated standards will have on residential electricity consumption in Texas. Finally, utility-specific REEPS results are presented and these results serve as inputs to the PUCT's version of EPRl's Hourly Electric Load Model (HELM) to estimate the peak demand reductions which will result from the appliance standards.