Hi everyone,

I have a question regarding eQuest's process for defining economic rates
schedules.

We just finished modeling a building with electricity provided by Pacific
Power, under Schedule 28. Assuming eQuest was drawing on some database with
up-to-date rates, we put a report together using two-page summary savings,
only to find that the reported savings for a lighting EEM were roughly (but
not exactly) half what we would expect.

After digging through DDE mode to identify rates schedules and blocks, we
found that eQuest had populated the rates blocks entirely differently from
the expected rates schedules provided by Pacific Power.

eQuest had split rates up into blocks whose $/unit values varied wildly; the
first block was set up in such a way that the charges would accelerate
slowly, and had a $/unit setpoint that seemed completely random.

The real question in my mind is this: where does eQuest find its rates
schedules, and how up-to-date are they? Of course an eQuest modeler should
always check through rates schedules, but should we also always assume that
only custom rates will reflect utilities' actual numbers?

Any insight into the issue would be very much appreciated.

Regards,
Taylor Sharpe