Maintenance of Accreditation Program for Guidelines Home Energy Professionals Project

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is a national laboratory owned by

the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). NREL is the only federal laboratory dedicated to

research, development, commercialization, and deployment of renewable energy and

energy efficiency technologies. NREL is managed and operated for DOE’s Office of

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy

(Alliance), the “M&O Contractor”.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP)

reduces energy costs for low-income households by increasing the energy efficiency of

their homes, while ensuring their health and safety. To support WAP, the Guidelines for

Home Energy Professionals (GHEP) was established, which includes Standard Work

Specifications for Home Energy Upgrades (SWS), Home Energy Professional (HEP)

certifications, and accreditation of energy-efficiency training programs.

Training and certifications for workers in the residential building retrofit market have

experienced rapid growth in recent years. The competencies gained by workers who

complete training and the scope and depth of training curriculum varies widely, leading

to uncertainty in the marketplace as to 1) what competencies are necessary for a person

to adequately perform a specific job, and 2) which trainers and training programs are

qualified according to those competency requirements.

Due to these market challenges, DOE tasked the National Renewable Energy

Laboratory (NREL) with developing and maintaining GHEP resources including the SWS

and accrediting HEP Energy Auditor (EA) certification to the International Standards

Organization (ISO) 17024:2012 standard. NREL has also been tasked with leading the

development and maintenance of Job Task Analyses (JTA) for all HEP schemes which

include single-family Crew Leader, Energy Auditor, Quality Control Inspector (QCI), and

Multifamily EA and QCI. JTAs are used to analyze and identify tasks within a job role

and form the basis of accredited training toward the HEP certifications.

To support the HEP workforce and adhere to the DOE Quality Work Plan (QWP)

(https://www.energy.gov/scep/quality-work-plan-requirements), certified trainers and

accredited training programs must be available. NREL is tasked with ensuring that WAP

training centers and trainers maintain their credentials, and that additional training

centers and trainers can be credentialed by an accredited standards developing

organization.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this work effort is to ensure high-quality, third party validated training

and trainers are available and remain available to the WAP network and to increase

the national availability of accredited WAP training by supporting new and existing

Weatherization Training Center (WTC) credential holders with accreditation and

certification services.