POTENTIAL QUESTION REGARDING THE WEATHERIZATION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (WAP) Q: Explain the difference between the WAP Fiscal

Year and WAP Program Year? A: The 2013 WAP Fiscal Year (FY13) is the same as the federal fiscal year October 1, 2012 to September 30, 2013. The 2013 WAP Program Year (PY13) is very different: The first PY13 begins on April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014 and includes 24 grantees; The second PY13 begins on July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014 and includes 27 grantees; The third PY13 begins on October 1, 2013 to September 30, 2014 and includes 8 grantees. The original purpose for the difference in the FY and PY start dates has to do with the nature of the Weatherization work and the network of service delivery. The WAP network is comprised of 59 grantees and over 1,000 subgrantees. Each subgrantee uses a combination of direct hire staff and private contractors to conduct the many aspects of the WAP work energy auditing, material selection, labor to install the energy efficiency measures, recordkeeping and reporting to name a few. The pipeline of eligible properties is never-ending and the work is performed on a rotating basis with thousands of jobs in each stage of service delivery at any time. Congressional appropriations are the trigger for when funds can be distributes to grantees by formula and grantees and execute agreements with the subgrantee network to continue the work in the field. If Congress made these funds available every October 1st, WAP could use that FY date as a start time for the Program Year. Unfortunately, delays in access to appropriated funds would cause a cessation of field work requiring staff lay-offs and cessation of on-going activities. Restarting the program when funds are finally available will cause delays as new staff are hired and trained to replace those who found other employment and regaining access to homes would need to be re-established. Depending on the length of the delay, customers may require recertification of eligible causing even more difficulties when homes that were partial started failed to be recertified. To avoid this major disruption in operations, the network altered its PY to allow for adequate cash flow from the federal government to support the projects. April 1 was originally chosen as the halfway point in the fiscal year, thus avoiding any cash flow disruptions. Since then, more than half the grantees have opted to align the WAP start dates with their fiscal year so it is easier to gain budget authority to expend funds that are already known to exist. While the moving of the date resolved one major operational issue, it creates another in the accounting of funds at the federal level. Even though Congress may delay passage of the annual budget, the fiscal year start date never changes October 1. This means
1

that budget offices will look at annual expenditures based on the fiscal year. If the 2013 fiscal year begins on October 1, 2012 and the WAP program year begins six months later on April 1, 2013 for less than half the grantees, a question of how much money was expended during the first half of FY13 would reveal $0 because the program hadnt started yet. At the end of the fiscal year September 30, 2013 24 grantees would have been operating for half the year, 27 grantees for one quarter of the year, and 8 grantees wouldnt have started. It would appear that significant uncosted balances still exist in grants because of the program start up timing. The other major issue with uncosted balances is that they dont exist as available funds. Every grantee is required to distribute 100% of its operation funds to subgrantees so Weatherization services can be provided. The subgrantees have already earmarked the homes to be completed and hired the staff and contractors to perform the work. There are no balances available for use in the next fiscal year. Any Congressional Appropriations made in 2014 would pay for weatherization work related to the 2014 WAP Program Year. Prior to the Recovery Act, the WAP network would carry over approximately 5% - 10% of the funds available during the Program Year. When the Recovery Act was passed, grantees were instructed to focus their efforts on using these funds first. This provided a significant balance of DOE Base funds in 2012. Those balances will be used during the 2012 Program Year. WAP predicts that only a few grantees will have any funds available in either Recovery Act or DOE Base funds at the beginning of their 2013 Program Year. Q: How has the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) measured its program effectiveness? A: In the past, the WAP has used meta-evaluations based on its initial 1989 National Evaluation to determine cost effectiveness and saving to investment calculations. The meta-evaluations in 1999, 2002, 2006 and 2008 used recent state evaluation results to update national metrics. In 2009, The WAP, through the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, procured the services of an independent organization to conduct a National Evaluation for both pre and post Recovery Act activities and outcomes. This is an excellent opportunity to provide a robust data set of pre-weatherization, post-weatherization, measures installed and energy impacts. These reports will validate the results of the Program and help defend future funding requests. The following are key points for consideration: Two National Evaluations of WAP are taking place: Retrospective which covers PY 2007 & 2008; and ARRA-Period which covers PY 2009, 2010, & 2011; Within the Evaluation, DOE initiated an Indoor Air Quality Study. The study includes approximately 550 homes, measuring pre- and post-weatherization levels of certain air pollutants with an over-sampling of areas with high-radon households; and Other key areas of evaluation include:
2

National energy savings, cost savings, and cost-effectiveness; Studies of Grantees, local agencies, clients, and weatherization workers; Non-energy benefits (health improvements, utility bill arrearages, environmental pollution reductions); Other indoor air pollutants that could affect Weatherization delivery (formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, mold/moisture); Territories, large multifamily buildings, SERC, WIPP, deferrals, persistence, and under-performers

Q: What is the WAP doing to address quality issues uncovered in routine DOE program monitoring, DOE Inspector General (IG) audits, and Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports? A: WAP has a very comprehensive monitoring effort that reviews each grantees operation for compliance, resource accountability and information integrity. Each grantee is visited between two and four times a year. Some receive more frequent visits if issues surface during routine oversight. It is also important to note that most, if not all, the findings uncovered through DOE IG or GAO field visits at the grantee level were already discovered in DOEs routine monitoring. In most cases, corrective action plans were already underway by the time the reports were released. The quality issues discovered during the many field visits by all these sources caused great concern for the WAP. As part of the national Training and Technical Assistance (T&TA) Project, plans were developed and implemented to address worker training, certification and quality improvement. Some of these steps included: Guidelines for Home Energy Professionals: The WAP has been weatherizing homes for over 30 years. These efforts are not something new. DOE is taking this work and codifying it through the Standard Work Specifications and Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrade Professionals, Training Program Accreditation, and Workforce Certification Architecture efforts. These are voluntary national guidelines to support quality work and a skilled workforce in the WAP and private residential energy efficiency upgrade industry. Professional Collaborative: The WAP is leading a collaborative effort between private industry, organized labor, and government agencies to create the architecture for Worker Certification, Training Program Accreditation, and the Standard Work Specifications and the Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrade Professionals. Standard Work Specifications are being completed for Single Family, Multifamily, and Mobile Homes as part of this effort. The Mobile Home Standard Work Specification Development event is taking place in mid-September. Standard Work Specifications: Define the minimum requirements for highquality work and the conditions necessary to achieve the desired outcomes of a given energy efficiency retrofit measure
3

Referenced Technical Standards: Define the safety, materials, installation, and application standards, codes, and regulations applicable to residential energy efficiency retrofits such as ASHRAE, OSHA, ASTM. Job Task Analyses: Identifies and inventories a jobs critical tasks. A formal process for determining and cataloguing what a worker does. Tasks are classified as either cognitive (mental) or psychomotor (physical) skills, and as critical, very important, and important for job performance. Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: Identify the minimum knowledge, skills, and abilities that workers should possess to perform high-quality work. Each Job Task has a corresponding set of essential KSAs

Worker Certification: This initiative will create four national certifications within the Weatherization and Home Performance industries: Installer Technician, Crew Leader, Energy Auditor and Quality Assurance Inspector. The DOE will use the Voluntary Workforce guidelines, the Job Task Analysis and Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities as the foundational document for worker certification. The contract for the certifying body was signed July 29, 2011. This body will develop the certification schemes and the labeling necessary to brand this professional credential in the residential market. Targeted certification pilot testing is scheduled for the Winter of 2011 and the first certifications will be issued in the Summer of 2012.

Training Program Accreditation: In order to create uniform training and testing of students who will receive certification credentials, the training curricula and trainers who perform instruction must be accredited. The WAP has engaged the services of an independent third party, the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), to provide accreditation of training centers in accordance with ISPQ International Standard 01022. IREC will use the DOE Job Task Analysis and Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities as the foundational document for accreditation. IREC has been accepting applications for accreditation since May 2011 and DOE expects the first accredited training centers to be named by the Winter of 2011. Standardized Training Curriculum: Using the JTAs and KSAs, the WAP developed a series of training modules covering all aspects of program management and field installation technologies. The WAP training network is strongly encouraged to adopt these curricula in their training schemes. The modules are designed to build on each other. Weatherization Installer/Technician Fundamentals lays the groundwork for new or existing workers interested in understanding the whole-house approach to Weatherization and expanding on his/her knowledge of building science. From there, the student stays on a continuum of training modules from Crew Chief to Train the Trainer. Q: How has the Weatherization Assistance Program ensured that they have not adversely impacted the health and well-being of low-income households?

A: In the early 1990's, the WAP began to focus on Health and Safety issues. Combustion safety testing, pressure diagnostics, and moisture issues were all examined under the auspices of energy related building science and the welcome outcome was that we were creating healthier homes. In 2009 the WAP implemented the Weatherization Plus Health initiative as a nationwide effort to enable the comprehensive, strategic coordination of resources for energy, health, and safety in low-income homes. The initiative will help the WAP create and reinvigorate local health-oriented service networks nationwide so that they can better help meet the health and safety needs of the clients being served. WAP funding can be used to correct energy related health and safety issues, but acknowledges the importance of leveraging other funding and outside programs to work beyond those limitations. Weatherization Plus Health will deliver individual reports on the healthy homes infrastructure in every state and territory; a public website mapping healthy homes and weatherization programs nationwide; T&TA for Healthy Homes and WAP providers on cross-issues; and host six regional conferences (May through November) to identify gaps in existing services and partnerships. Because the WAP views Healthy Homes as a post Recovery Act opportunity for workers, as part of our Weatherization Plus Health initiative, the WAP is developing additional Healthy Homes and Health and Safety related curriculum modules. One of the biggest things the WAP did this year is update the WAP Health and Safety Guidance WPN 11-6 in January 2011 for weatherization grantees, providing updates to previous guidance and an expansion of health topics, including approaches to ventilation, pests, tests for radon, lead, asbestos and moisture, and more. A programmatic training, FAQs and best practices are currently in development. The new Healthy Homes Electronic Assessment Tool has been developed by ORNL with the collaboration of both HUD and DOE. It identifies potential health and safety issues in single family, modular, and multifamily housing units. The current software is a stand-alone module but allows for future integration with energy efficiency audit tools. See the demo at: http://hyperion.ornl.gov/hud.