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Barriers and strategies to achieve an equitable transition to residential building electrification: a case study of Los Angeles
Sandoval, Noah T.
Sandoval, Noah T.
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2024
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2025-11-26
Abstract
Widespread residential building electrification is a key component of achieving federal, state, and local decarbonization mandates. While there has been significant research into technologies needed to achieve residential building electrification, existing research has not investigated technology deployment, and more specifically, equitable deployment in a timely manner to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. In this dissertation, an energy justice-informed study design is used to explore viable pathways to achieve residential buildings electrification and outline the possible consequences of these pathways to ensure no household is over-burdened or left behind in this transition. First, a comparative framework is developed to analyze the scenario development process of energy models and is then applied to the development of high-quality electrification scenarios for the residential building sector. Second, a high-resolution techno-economic model is developed to calculate all costs associated with electrification upgrades. Setting a variable discount rate for each household based on income, this model compares the upgrades of varying efficiency levels for all the major electrification end uses – space heating, water heating, cooking, and clothes drying – and reports results based on income, building type, renter/owner status, and household cooling use. Lastly, two electrification supportive strategies – improved building envelope characteristics and universal access to cooling using heat pumps – are evaluated to determine if there are any synergistic benefits with the previously evaluated electrification upgrades. The work of this dissertation improves the scenario development and economic analysis of residential building electrification and provides a novel study design that incorporates the tenets of energy justice.
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