For the past several years, ACEEE has tracked utility-sector natural gas savings at the state level as part of our State Energy Efficiency Scorecard. As part of our biennial City Energy Efficiency Scorecard, we collect natural gas savings data at the utility level. These two data sources help identify the leaders in gas energy efficiency savings. The figure below shows the 14 states where utility-funded energy efficiency programs in 2015 saved more than 0.5% of retail natural gas sales (residential and commercial). This includes six states saving at least 1% of sales – Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Vermont.
Incremental 2015 Net Natural Gas Energy Efficiency Savings in Leading States as a Percent of Retail Natural Gas Sales
The graph below summarizes energy efficiency savings as a percent of retail natural gas sales for 14 high-achieving natural gas utilities. These utilities each realized savings of more than 0.5% of sales. Included are seven utilities with savings of at least 1% of sales, including four with savings of more than 1.5% of sales. These leading utilities show what can be achieved when utilities seek to maximize savings. Our data come from the forthcoming ACEEE 2017 City Energy Efficiency Scorecard, which includes data on the largest natural gas utilities serving the 51 largest cities in the United States. Of course, there are also high-achieving natural gas utilities that do not serve major cities. For example, some leading states in the first chart, such as New Hampshire and Vermont, are not represented in the second chart because they don’t have major cities. Also, there are often more than one utility serving customers in leading states, such as Eversource Massachusetts and Xcel Minnesota. These utilities are not included in the second chart. Thus, to get the full picture, one must consider both charts.
Incremental 2015 Net Energy Efficiency Savings by Leading Natural Gas Utilities as a Percent of Retail Natural Gas Sales
Note: Similar state-level data for electricity savings can be found in our 2016 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard. We will publish data for individual electric utilities in our forthcoming 2017 Utility Energy Efficiency Scorecard.
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