Energy-Efficiency Program Evaluations: Opportunities for Learning and Inputs to Incentive Mechanisms
RFF (Resources for the Future) Discussion Paper 10-16
39 Pages Posted: 18 Apr 2010 Last revised: 19 Jun 2010
Date Written: April 14, 2010
Abstract
We analyze the evaluations of California energy-efficiency programs to assess the effectiveness of these evaluations in: 1) improving our understanding of their performance and 2) providing a check on utility incentives to overstate energy savings. We find that third-party evaluations are useful tools to achieve both ends because the programs largely did not meet their energy-savings projections, and the utility-reported savings estimates are systematically higher than the evaluated savings estimates. We also find evidence that the choice of the third-party evaluator was influential in determining the estimate of evaluated savings.
Keywords: energy efficiency, third-party evaluation, energy-savings measurement
JEL Classification: L94, L95, L51
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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