Policies and programs that address customer end uses of energy, both electric and natural gas, are critical for achieving greater energy efficiency. The policies that underpin these programs include utility regulation and legislation that guides state efforts to advance energy efficiency. Regulation can provide utility incentives to pursue energy efficiency and compensate a utility’s lost revenue from energy efficiency measures. State legislatures can prod utility commissions to adopt these regulations with explicit legislation. Another major policy states can adopt is the Energy Efficiency Resource Standard (EERS), which requires utilities to annually save a certain percentage of energy over a multi-year period.
The Toolkit pieces we include in this section were developed to inform stakeholders in states that are at various stages of developing their energy efficiency policies and program portfolios. Here stakeholders will find resources that run the gamut of regulatory policy as it relates to utility investment in energy efficiency, from developing foundational regulatory policy to advancing cost-effective utility-financed energy efficiency programs that aim to generate deep energy savings.
