Developing State and National Evaluation Infrastructures- Guidance for the Challenges and Opportunities of EM&V

Evaluating the impacts and effectiveness of energy efficiency programs is likely to become increasingly important for state policymakers and program administrators given legislative mandates and regulatory goals and increasing reliance on energy efficiency as a resource. In this paper, we summarize three activities that the authors have conducted that highlight the expanded role of evaluation, measurement and verification (EM&V): a study that identified and analyzed challenges in improving and scaling up EM&V activities; a scoping study that identified issues involved in developing a national efficiency EM&V standard; and lessons learned from providing technical assistance on EM&V issues to states that are ramping up energy efficiency programs. The lessons learned are summarized in 13 EM&V issues that policy makers should address in each jurisdiction and which are listed and briefly described. The paper also discusses how improving the effectiveness and reliability of EM&V will require additional capacity building, better access to existing EM&V resources, new methods to address emerging issues and technologies, and perhaps foundational documents and approaches to improving the credibility and cross jurisdictional comparability of efficiency investments. Two of the potential foundational documents discussed are a national EM&V standard or resource guide and regional deemed savings and algorithm databases