L Prize Program Partners

Four major California utilities—Pacific Gas & Electric, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Southern California Edison—provided valuable input to the competition planning process, and are prepared to assist in the evaluation of proposed products and promotion of the winning products. Now a growing number of utilities and energy efficiency programs have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Department of Energy, agreeing to work cooperatively to promote high-efficiency solid-state lighting technologies.

Utilities and energy efficiency programs from other states and regions are encouraged to become active L Prize partners. To learn more, contact lprize@pnl.gov.

Product Evaluation

Products entering the L Prize competition will be evaluated in a multi-step process designed to provide a high level of confidence in their performance and energy efficiency. While performance testing will be conducted by independent test laboratories, program partners will play a critical role in the evaluation process by conducting field assessments of proposed products.

Field assessments will include

• installation in host customer facilities, such as homes, commercial spaces, or outdoor locations
• installation in utility technology demonstration facilities
• focus group testing with retailers, builders, and/or consumers.

Program partners involved in field assessments will use criteria established by the DOE GATEWAY Demonstration program.

L Prize field assessments will

• evaluate energy use of the products when installed in-situ as compared to the existing technology, and generate reproducible energy and demand savings data
• characterize the lighting system performance of the products installed in-situ as compared to the existing technology
• assess reliability of the products during the test period
• evaluate customer acceptance of the products
• assess criteria for cost-effective deployment of the product through a utility energy efficiency program.

Field assessment results will provide valuable input to the overall evaluation process and ultimate selection of winners.

L Prize Product Promotion

Program partners will play an important role in promoting and developing markets for the winning L Prize products. The comprehensive evaluation process defined for the competition will provide a large amount of quantitative and qualitative data to support promotion of the winning products.

Product promotions might include

• product incentives paid directly to manufacturers or to consumers
• collaborative marketing and promotion
  • print, radio, TV, and online advertisement
  • point of purchase information
  • educational materials
  • training
• partnerships with local, regional, and/or national retailers
• demonstrations and promotions with local homebuilders, commercial developers, hospitality chains, local government, schools, universities, etc.