The Energy Department has published a new series of protocols for determining savings from energy efficiency upgrades in homes, commercial buildings, and industrial facilities. Using consistent methods to calculate energy savings will improve the credibility and demonstrate the impact of energy efficiency programs that help businesses and families reduce their energy bills.
Developed in close collaboration with the nation's leading technical experts under the Uniform Methods Project, these protocols offer a straightforward approach for calculating energy savings made possible from common residential and commercial efficiency measures in utility-based energy efficiency programs.
Currently, there are differences in the way public utility commissions, utilities, contractors, and energy efficiency program administrators calculate energy savings in different jurisdictions and regions of the country. These differences reduce the overall credibility of energy efficiency programs. Adopting the new protocols, titled Methods for Determining Energy Efficiency Savings for Specific Measures, will help increase confidence about reported energy savings from energy efficiency programs.
The new protocols follow accepted practices in the energy efficiency evaluation industry and have been vetted by numerous experts. Their development was led by the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and implemented by the Cadmus Group.