WAC 480-107-065. Acquisition of conservation and efficiency resources

(1) A conservation and efficiency resource supplier may participate in the bidding process for any resource need. A utility or its subsidiary or affiliate may participate as a conservation resource supplier subject to the conditions described in WAC 480-107-024 . (2) All conservation and efficiency measures within a bid must produce savings that can be reliably measured or estimated with accepted engineering, statistical, or meter-based methods. (3) A utility must acquire conservation and efficiency resources through a competitive procurement process as described in this rule unless the utility is implementing a competitive procurement framework for conservation and efficiency resources as approved by the commission. (a) As part of that process, a utility may develop, and update each biennium, a competitive procurement framework for conservation and efficiency resources in consultation with its conservation advisory group, as described in WAC 480-109-110 . The utility may file its first competitive procurement framework for conservation and efficiency resources with the utility's 2022-2023 biennial conservation plan. (b) The competitive procurement framework for conservation and efficiency resources must: (i) Define the specific criteria that the utility will use to determine the frequency of competitive bidding for conservation and efficiency resource programs, in whole or part; (ii) Address appropriate public participation, outreach, and communication of evaluation and selection criteria; (iii) Enhance or, at minimum, not interfere with the adaptive management of programs; (iv) Include documentation of support by the advisory group; and (v) Be filed as an appendix to the utility's biennial conservation plan, as described in WAC 480-109-120 . (c) The competitive procurement framework for conservation and efficiency resources may: (i) Exempt particular programs from competitive procurement, such as low-income, market transformation, or self-directed programs; and (ii) Consider if and when to use an independent evaluator.