ACEEE:Examining the Net Savings Issue: A National Survey of State Policies and Practices

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Examining the Net Savings Issue: A National Survey of State Policies and Practices 

 

How much energy savings resulted from a given energy efficiency program? This is the fundamental question that program evaluators have faced since the days of the very first energy efficiency programs in the 1970’s.

 

What makes this task more difficult than it sounds at first is that the results, or gross savings, observed among program participants must be compared to something that cannot actually be observed or measured: what would have happened if the program had never occurred. The term of art for this elusive variable is “net savings,” and evaluators have developed a plethora of techniques and methodologies for estimating it. 

 

In order to help policymakers, regulators, utilities, and other interested parties better understand the current practice in the industry, and the issues and trade-offs involved, aceee conducted a national review of state approaches to the net savings issue. aceee surveyed all 50 states and the District of Columbia, reviewed a large amount of recent industry literature, and conducted interviews with national energy efficiency program evaluation experts. The findings are summarized in our new report, Examining the Net Savings Issue: A National Survey of State Policies and Practices in the Evaluation of Ratepayer-Funded Energy Efficiency Programs.

 

To continue reading the blog post visit: http://aceee.org/blog/2014/01/net-savings-non-evaluators-some-conce

 

To read the report visit: http://aceee.org/research-report/u1401

 

About ACEEE: The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy acts as a catalyst to advance energy efficiency policies, programs, technologies, investments, and behaviors. For information about ACEEE and its programs, publications, and conferences, visit aceee.org

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