Assessing Potential

Getting Started

After you’ve completed a market analysis, the next step is to identify the criteria your utility will use to evaluate the potential benefits of different energy efficiency programs.

Potential Can Be Assessed At Several Levels:

• Technical Potential: The maximum amount of energy savings that could be achieved if the most efficient technologies, regardless of cost, were installed in every circumstance where the technology could be used.
• Economic Potential: The maximum amount of energy savings that could be achieved if the most efficient cost-effective technologies were installed in every circumstance where the technology could be used.
• Achievable Potential: The amount of energy savings that could be achieved as a result of implementing utility energy efficiency programs. This estimate considers key factors such as appliance turnover rates and market barriers, both of which can substantially limit the amount of energy efficiency that can be obtained.

The guides here will help you apply the lenses above to screen measures and identify a short-list of the most promising programs. In addition to guidance on how to assess potential, this section contains example potential studies from various regions or states. Depending on your needs, you may be able to simply refine or localize the results in existing studies to infer what program impacts might be like in your market.