Frequently asked questions
General
What are single and dual baseline measures?
A baseline is the reference point that efficient technologies are compared against to determine the amount of savings they produce.
When a new, more efficient measure is installed to replace an existing measure that has reached the end of its life, the savings from the new efficient measure are calculated using an established code or other standard as the baseline for the entirety of the life of the new measure. That is considered a single baseline measure.
When a new, more efficient measure replaces an existing measure that was not yet at the end of its life, the new measure is considered to cause early retirement of the existing measure. For the remaining useful lifetime of the measure that was retired early, the new, more efficient measure savings are calculated using the existing measure as the baseline. That is the first baseline of a dual baseline measure. After the expected lifetime of the measure that was retired ends, the savings from the new, more efficient measure is calculated using an established code or other standard. That is the second baseline of a dual baseline measure.
What is the CET?
CET stands for the Cost Effectiveness Tool. It is a public database created by the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) that calculates cost effectiveness metrics including Total Resource Cost (TRC) that the CPUC uses to evaluate the cost effectiveness of programs. The CPUC provides an online user interface to run data through the CET and receive results back as part of the CPUC CEDARS web application.
The CET accepts input data that detail how and where measures are installed, including unit energy savings, quanities, and costs. The CET runs those inputs through calculation scripts including pulling in transmission and distribution rates and other factors to output cost effectiveness metrics, savings, and CO2, NOx, and PM10 emission reduction for the described activities.
What is DEER?
DEER stands for the Database of Energy Efficiency Resources. It is a public database created by the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) that provides estimated energy savings for efficiency measures.
DEER includes many value lists that the CPUC requires when submitting data to the CPUC Cost Effectiveness Tool (CET). Please visit the CPUC DEER website for more information about DEER.
Why did the CET reject my data?
The Cost Effectiveness Tool (CET) has many rules and data submissions must comply with all of them to be accepted and have the CET calculate cost effectiveness. Before any data can be evaluated, the file must first meet the CET requirements including the file names, column names, file encoding, the presense of a trailing empty line after last data record, and more. Some examples of invalid file errors returned by the CET:
Your upload was not processed. These files had an invalid format: Measure.csv: Column name mismatch: Missing columns: ['UnitRefrigCosts', 'MiscBensDesc', 'UnitMiscBens', 'MiscCostsDesc', 'UnitRefrigBens', 'UnitGasInfraBens', 'UnitMiscCosts'] Unexpected columns: ['MarketEffectsCosts', 'MarketEffectsBenefits']
That error means that the data file does not match the current data specification released in July 2021.
Your upload was not processed. These files had an invalid format: Measure.csv: Column name mismatch: - Missing columns: ('CEInputID',) - Unexpected columns: ('\ufeff',) ProgramCost.csv: Column name mismatch: - Missing columns: ('PrgID',) - Unexpected columns: ('\ufeff',)
That error means that your input files have a byte order mark embedded in the file that needs to be removed. The byte order mark looks like "ufeff" in the error feedback.
Uploads
What file types can I upload to My Data Chameleon?
My Data Chameleon can read files in the following formats:
- Microsoft Excel XLSX, used by Excel 2007 and later
- Microsoft Excel XLSM, which adds macro support to the XLSX format
- Microsoft Excel XLS, used by Excel 97—2003
- Open Document Spreadsheet (ODS)
- Comma Separated Values (CSV)
- CSV-like formats delimited with any character, including pipe-delimited CET formatted files
- Zip files containing any combination of the above
Why couldn't My Data Chameleon process my worksheet?
There two common reasons this might happen are:
- My Data Chameleon wasn't able to recognize the data in this worksheet; or
- the worksheet doesn't contain measure or program cost data—if this is the case, you can safely ignore this!
If the worksheet does contain measure or program cost data, you can help My Data Chameleon recognize it by:
- naming the worksheet "Measures" if it contains measure data or "Program costs" if it contains program cost data; and
- adding a heading row to the worksheet which will help My Data Chameleon recognize what each column is.
What column headings should I include for measure uploads?
See the list of measure columns.