Report | 2011

Turbocharging Efficiency Programs: Going for Broader and Deeper Savings

By Mathias BellBrendan O'DonnellRyan Matley
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It is a new era for utility efficiency programs. Policymakers and regulators have required many utilities to achieve more efficiency savings than ever before, and the amount utilities spend on efficiency continues to increase at a rapid pace. Momentum for utility efficiency programs has never been greater. Utilities have been providing efficiency to their customers for more than 30 years. But just continuing on with a “business-as-usual” mindset will not be sufficient if utilities hope to sustain the momentum and meet (or exceed) their efficiency targets. Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS) have set challenging energy savings targets, and to meet these targets, utilities will have to improve their performance in administering programs. If utilities don’t make significant progress, utility efficiency programs will fail to deliver on increasingly aggressive targets. To improve their performance, utilities will need to turbocharge their efficiency programs by going for both broader and deeper savings. Going broader means acquiring more participants, while going deeper means helping each participant save more energy.