Forum Background & Purpose

Forum Background

More than ever, the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states rely on investments in building sector demand side resources as primary strategies to achieve critical energy and environmental goals for the next decade and beyond. As such, states have an increased interest in consistent evaluation, measurement and verification, along with related protocols, to determine the energy and peak demand savings and associated cost and emission reductions from these resources.

Recognizing this growing need, NEEP conducted a study in early 2006, The Need for and Approaches to Developing Common Protocols to Measure, Verify and Report Energy Efficiency Savings in the Northeast, which identified important differences in EM&V practices, definitions and savings assumptions for electric energy efficiency resources across the region. Shortly after the release of this study, ISO-New England embarked on developing measurement and verification standards for its wholesale Forward Capacity Market (FCM), to which NEEP contributed coordinated regional guidance. For more information on the ISO New England FCM M&V Manual, visit the EM&V Forum Library.

Building on the results of the "Common Protocols Report", and experience facilitating the New England states in common protocol development, NEEP launched a project in Fall 2007 to explore the feasibility and scope of a regional resource to develop and support the implementation of consistent protocols for the evaluation, measurement, verification and reporting of energy and capacity savings across the broader northeast and mid-atlantic regions. Based on the results of that project, and having obtained seed funding, NEEP officially launched the Forum in July 2008.

Forum Operations

The Forum's initial activities were directed by a Three-Year Plan (2009-2011) guided by the Forum Project Committees, and ultimately recommended by the Forum Steering Committee and the NEEP Board of Directors. The Forum operates according to an Organizational Structure and Operational Guidelines approved by the Steering Committee. Please view the EM&V Forum Overview and Forum Accomplishments to Date for more information about Forum activities.

Supported by a New England Conference of Public Utilities Commissioners resolution and a complementary Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners resolution, the Forum is also funded by federal, state, and private foundation sources.

Forum Purpose

The purpose of the Forum is to support the successful implementation and evaluation of state and regional policies that promote demand-side resources to meet public policy goals for energy, the environment and the economy. Key to this is standardized and credible EM&V that is accessible to multiple parties. The Forum's goals are to:

1. Increase the credibility of energy efficiency and other demand resources as states invest more dollars in cost-effective demand resources as a top strategy to meet energy, environmental and economic goals, including procurement policies, participating in wholesale capacity markets (and reinvestment of FCM revenues back into programs), allocating RGGI allowance proceeds to demand resources, etc. The Forum aims to increase credibility of energy and demand savings by providing: a) greater consistency of savings values for similar measures and programs; b) increased transparency and accessibility of EM&V protocols and inputs; and c) a direct link between energy and air regulator estimates of savings, cost and emission impacts.

2. Reduce evaluation and other research costs by leveraging funds across a range of interested parties through collaborative research and analysis that spends research and evaluation budgets more efficiently. Successful demand-side resource programs and policies require input data to inform estimates of energy savings (e.g., market characterizations and baseline assumptions regarding current energy usage, load shapes that characterize the timing of energy usage, field-based assessments of demand-side program impacts).

3. Increase participation in demand-side resource markets by having one set of regionally accepted protocols across the Northeast to measure, verify, track and report impacts which will minimize confusion and reduce barriers for the growing market of demand-side resource providers.

4. Improve state, regional and local demand-side resource and energy planning, implementation and evaluation by having readily available and consistent inputs, protocols and reporting format and tools. Readily available and regionally vetted data and requirements for demand-side resources will simplify planning and reporting processes, and support comparative analyses across the region that assess the effectiveness of various policies and their implementation.

5. Inform the likely development of national standards and protocols for demand-side resources. The development of regional protocols for the Northeast and mid-Atlantic region will likely inform and influence protocol development at the national, and even international, levels in the context of national carbon legislation and Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS) legislation.