Ceres Report Uses EIA-861 Data to Benchmark Utility Energy Efficiency Efforts

How do different utilities' energy efficiency portfolios stack up against each other? A new report from Ceres, "Benchmarking Electric Utility Energy Efficiency Portfolios in the U.S.," uses EIA-861 data to explore this challenging question.

In the report, Ceres and its consulting partner MJB&A compare 50 diverse utilities, including eight public power utilities, across four metrics. The chosen metrics are total energy efficiency expenditures, relative spending (per MWh of retail sales), total incremental savings, and relative savings (incremental savings as a percent of MWh delivered). A few highlights include: relative spending ranging from $4.80/MWh to $0.02/MWh and relative savings ranging from 1.9% to 0.0%. Notably, the report does not attempt to compare utilities on cost-effectiveness, due to a lack of lifecycle savings data.

The report presents a correlation between state energy efficiency policies (e.g. decoupling, shareholder incentives, and mandatory savings targets) and utility energy efficiency achievement. The report also analyzes the obstacles to making accurate comparisons between utilities. These include: a lack of accessible data, differences in EM&V protocols, unclear EIA reporting guidelines, and biases of certain metrics. Differences between utilities, such as policy environment, customer class mix, electricity rates, and climatic zones, also play a substantial role.