The ICP Quality Assurance (QA) Specification represents a comprehensive resource designed to standardize the evaluation criteria and methodologies used by ICPCredentialed QA Providers. It provides essential information regarding the Quality Assurance (QA) Provider’s qualifications and responsibilities, as well as a description of how the ICP QA process integrates with the overall ICP System and development of ICP Investor Ready Energy Efficiency™ projects. It also provides direction for QA Providers to correctly implement the ICP QA Checklists.
The QA Specification provides a framework for QA best practices and resources to enable the implementation of repeatable processes and optimize energy efficiency project risk assessment in order to give building owners and investors more confidence in projected savings and project engineering.
The ICP QA Specification identifies methods, roles and responsibilities associated with the QA process with an emphasis on identifying areas of an energy efficiency project that require greater levels of scrutiny. The specification details the specific tasks associated with the development of an energy efficiency project and is organized based on the ICP Protocols which consist of the following five project development categories:
Baseline development
Savings calculations
Design, construction, and commissioning
Operations, maintenance, and monitoring
Measurement and verification
In many ways, the last three categories are essentially quality assurance-driven and are intended to ensure that installed measures are operating as expected, that their performance will persist over time, and that the estimated energy savings will be realized. Therefore, the QA Specification focuses on the first two categories of baselining and savings calculations with emphasis on the following items:
Completeness of data collection and validity of data
Utility data analysis - stability and normalization
Energy modeling QA and calibration
Spreadsheet savings calculations QA, including methodology and assumptions
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