Intent to impact: United States case studies on equity measurement in energy efficiency programming

Peer-reviewed paper 9-089-26

Tracking and reporting progress on energy efficiency programs offers valuable insight into the extent to which goals have been achieved and future improvements. However, measuring progress on underserved audience engagement remains challenging, since metrics can be intangible and data to inform them can be difficult and time-intensive to collect. The Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE), a membership-based NGO of 80 utilities working on energy efficiency in the US and Canada, has begun assessing the landscape of existing metrics that utilities leverage to evaluate progress towards equity goals. This work examines equity metrics beyond energy savings, identifying “better practices” for operationalizing the development of baselines and targets, as well as strategies for overcoming key barriers to implementation such as data challenges, regulatory constraints, and measurement costs. In addition to inventorying priority metrics, CEE has developed several narrative case studies highlighting the evolving process of members’ efforts in this space.

In this paper, we highlight key findings from equity metrics interviews with utility program staff in various jurisdictions across the United States. This paper identifies better practices that have arisen out of this case study effort; for instance, utilities have created equity working groups consisting of community, regulatory, and internal stakeholders to co-develop and adopt new equity efforts. This paper also unveils other recommendations for setting baselines and targets, for engagement with community stakeholders, and ways to operationalize equity metrics to improve program design and delivery.