ACEEE Utilities Program Description

Goal: Help utilities, governmental organizations, and advocates design and implement effective energy efficiency policies and programs for the utility sector.

ACEEE provides high-quality program and policy research; active dissemination of research results; timely analyses of emerging issues; and highly credible policy and program design assistance from an independent source. We help utilities, regulators, and other organizations to identify energy efficiency opportunities and design state-of-the-art energy efficiency policies and programs, emphasizing approaches suitable for the circumstances in today's diverse utility industry. We provide information at the state and federal level to help facilitate public policies to support energy efficiency. Such information includes tracking and analysis of state experience with different policy approaches for funding and administering utility-sector energy efficiency programs; reviews of exemplary energy efficiency programs; and analyses of state-level regulatory mechanisms that promote greater energy efficiency and resource savings.

At the implementation level, ACEEE features a variety of effective energy efficiency strategies. We take a particular interest in policies and programs that treat the energy and demand savings achieved through greater energy efficiency as a true utility resource. Over two decades of experience with such policies and programs demonstrate clearly how such savings yield real resource value for utilities and their customers. Such savings also provide significant economic and environmental benefits, and can improve system reliability. We also emphasize programs that foster broader “market transformation” — achieving fundamental changes in markets that increase the sales and application of energy efficiency products and services. Industry leaders in utility-sector energy efficiency today typically employ a “portfolio” approach to offer end-use customers a full, integrated menu of programs and services that can not only procure significant resource savings, but also transform associated markets.

For two decades, ACEEE’s Utilities Program has been in the forefront of promoting policies and programs for treating energy efficiency as a resource. Most recently, we have conducted pioneering research on a number of critical issue areas within the utility sector, including:

ACEEE’s Utilities Program is nationally recognized for its research, information dissemination, and technical assistance to support effective policies and programs within the utility sector. In addition to our widely distributed publications, we also actively communicate our messages through numerous public forums, such as conferences, industry meetings, and regulatory proceedings. We have established and lead a biennial national conference on “energy efficiency as a resource.” We held the first such conference in 2001; the fourth in this series will be held in the fall of 2007. These conferences embody the history and ongoing focus of ACEEE’s Utilities Program — proving the real value of energy efficiency and bringing together utility-sector leaders to share experiences and develop the ideas and approaches necessary to achieve even greater impacts and greater utility system and societal benefits.

Utility-sector energy efficiency program spending declined by over 50% following the onset of utility restructuring in the mid-1990s, but has rebounded strongly from its low point in 1998.

For more information contact:
Martin Kushler, Program Director
Dan York, Senior Research Associate