Efficiency Screening Practices in the Northeast

Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships
Completed November 2013

The Regional Evaluation, Measurement and Verification Forum is a project managed and facilitated by Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships, Inc. (NEEP). The Forum’s purpose is to provide a framework for the development and use of common and/or consistent protocols to measure, verify, track, and report energy efficiency and other demand resource savings, costs, and emission impacts to support the role and credibility of these resources in current and emerging energy and environmental policies and markets in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region. For this project, Synapse surveyed the practices used across Forum states to screen energy efficiency programs for cost-effectiveness. Synapse gathered information about the type of cost-effectiveness test(s) used by the state, types of avoided costs included in cost-effectiveness tests, other program impacts (OPIs) included in cost-effectiveness tests, methods for estimating OPIs, level(s) at which cost-effectiveness tests are applied, and other relevant data. The final report offered Synapse recommendations on screening practices and methodologies, as well as future research topics to consider.