A message from the Executive Director
The reality of this promise was highlighted in NEEP’s special recognition of business and community projects honored in our Business Leaders for Energy Efficiency program. We thank our speakers for their contributions and congratulate those recognized by our awards for their achievements and for the example they set for others.
As NEEP begins the next ten years, I am pleased to report that this call to action is being heeded across the region. This is reflected in the emergence of new market-oriented policies such as including energy efficiency in ISO New England’s resource solicitation for forward capacity markets (FCM); in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) agreement that includes efficiency as an allowance-funded resource to reduce carbon emissions; and in Connecticut’s adoption of a portfolio standard for energy efficiency. Such new policies along with the soaring costs of gas, electricity and fuel oil could double or triple investments in energy efficiency in homes, buildings and industry. To reap the full value of this, energy efficiency advocates, policymakers, program administrators and service providers must think differently and creatively to develop policy frameworks and program strategies that overcome institutional and market barriers to increased energy efficiency, clearing the way for new investments with a major role for private capital.
For example, to integrate efficiency into power system planning and resource acquisition, we need consistent regional protocols to measure, verify, track and report energy and demand savings so that a kilowatt or kilowatt hour saved has the same meaning from project to project, and state to state. We also need updated regional and state-level forecasting and planning tools and processes that reflect efficiency as a dynamic resource including the impact of increased energy efficiency investments and the potential for more. This requires increased funding and capabilities for market research and program evaluation to continually assess and characterize the energy efficiency resource and the impacts of programs and policies.
The new policy framework must embrace efficiency as an incremental customer-oriented resource that involves successive investments in energy efficiency and the impact of other demand-side resources such as demand response, combined heat and power and distributed generation. To support this, we need program strategies that build on the capabilities and successes of current efforts, and clear and workable market rules for energy-efficiency solicitations. We need new rate designs that provide customer-level information and price signals regarding the time-differentiated value of energy efficiency. The policy framework must also align the financial interests and goals of distribution companies and energy efficiency program administrators with doubling or tripling energy savings and with leveraging private investment capital – particularly for retrofit projects.
An important new resource to guide effort this is the Energy Efficiency Action Plan just released by the U.S. EPA and U.S. Department of Energy with input from policy and business leaders and other stakeholders from across the country.
As NEEP launches into the next ten years, the future of energy efficiency in the Northeast is bright. We are excited and committed to work with policymakers and other energy efficiency advocates and stakeholders to engage in the new thinking needed to realize the great potential offered by energy efficiency to help solve our region’s environmental and economic challenges. The time is indeed now!
The message at NEEP’s tenth anniversary regional summit could not have been clearer – now is the time to increase investments in energy efficiency to help solve our region’s environmental and economic problems. This message, articulated by conference co-chairs Penni McLean-Conner from NSTAR and Ashok Gupta from Natural Resources Defense Council, by keynote speaker Dr. Kathleen Hogan from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and by closing speaker, Cheryl LeFluer, Chief Operating Officer of National Grid USA was likewise reflected in NEEP’s tenth anniversary energy efficiency awards and in the comments offered by our panelis
Susan Coakley
Executive Director
