Policy News

Building upon decades of successful ratepayer-funded efficiency program administration, efforts to bring private, public, and philanthropic capital to energy efficiency are trending throughout the Northeast region and beyond. But, can private finance and ratepayer funded energy efficiency programs peacefully co-exist in a single market?  Or should one market mechanism’s rising support signal the retreat of the other?  Here are some thoughts on this growing debate.

A Market in Development

Included in NEEP’s 2016 Regional Roundup is our take on what state energy offices, regulators and legislators can do to ensure that their states keep advancing on efforts to capture all cost-effective efficiency and keep riding the wave of this exciting “Next Generation".

Here's our Top Ten list of actions that policymakers can take to stay on course.

Please see the full report for more insights and analysis.

Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS) include any hardware and/or software system that can monitor and provide feedback about a home’s energy usage, and/or enable advanced control of energy-using systems and devices in the home. Often marketed through comfort and security lenses, HEMS ultimately have the opportunity to help provide deeper energy savings and harness the energy components of today to have the smart home of tomorrow.

While some may view it as “the winter that wasn’t,” early 2016 in fact hosted a flurry of energy efficiency program approvals and policy shakeups, both at the state and federal level.

The industrial sector represents more than 40 percent of total energy use in the buildings sector, spending more than $20 billion annually in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region alone. Industrial efficiency programs have some of the lowest cost of saved energy, meeting demand for as little as 3 ¢/kwh. Yet it is estimated that only 46 percent of industrial facilities engage in energy efficiency programs — leaving a substantial untapped potential on the table. 

In a major departure from traditional thinking that often compartmentalized energy efficiency efforts in a way which limits cross-fuel subsidization, Vermont is in the midst of promulgating final regulations for Act 56. This potentially-landmark bill would encourage the state’s utilities to sell more MWh’s by, amongst other things, electrifying the heating and transportation sectors.

Have you crossed paths with these terms recently? Becuase we certainly have.

“Utility 2.0”

“Utility of the Future”

“Intelligent Efficiency”

“Reforming the Energy Vision”

It’s hard to open a newsletter, attend a conference or read a blog these days without hearing or reading about the game-changing, landscape-altering, markets-animating, paradigm-shifting developments occurring in the world of energy efficiency.

But what, precisely, does it all mean?

With the legislative sessions in most states drawn to a close, but active regulatory dockets with many of our region’s regulatory commissions, NEEP’s December 2015 Policy Tracker provides a succinct overview of what our team considers to be the most important ongoing regulatory news in each jurisdiction.

UPDATE: On January 25, 2016, the Supreme Court voted to reverse and remand the lower court's decision, reaffirming FERC's jurisdiction over compensation levels for demand response in wholesale markets.

In this edition, we cover three of the most notable policy developments in the region, including a shakeup at the Maryland Energy Administration, recent news from New York, and signals from Massachusetts that energy efficiency will remain a first order resource. We then close with a brief summary of the EPA’s new air quality rule, and why it matters for energy efficiency.