National Energy Efficiency Evaluation, Measurement and Verification (EM&V) Standard: Scoping Study of Issues and Implementation Requirements
This report is a scoping study that identifies issues associated with developing a national evaluation, measurement and verification (EM&V) standard for end-use, non-transportation, energy efficiency activities. The objectives of this study are to identify the scope of such a standard and define EM&V requirements and issues that will need to be addressed in a standard. To explore these issues, we provide and discuss: (1) a set of definitions applicable to an EM&V standard; (2) a literature review of existing guidelines, standards, and 'initiatives' relating to EM&V standards as well as a review of 'bottom-up' versus 'top-down' evaluation approaches; (3) a summary of EM&V related provisions of two recent federal legislative proposals (Congressman Waxman's and Markey's American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 and Senator Bingaman's American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009) that include national efficiency resource requirements; (4) an annotated list of issues that that are likely to be central to, and need to be considered when, developing a national EM&V standard; and (5) a discussion of the implications of such issues. There are three primary reasons for developing a national efficiency EM&V standard. First, some policy makers, regulators and practitioners believe that a national standard would streamline EM&V implementation, reduce costs and complexity, and improve comparability of results across jurisdictions; although there are benefits associated with each jurisdiction setting its own EM&V requirements based on their specific portfolio and evaluation budgets and objectives. Secondly, if energy efficiency is determined by the US Environmental Protection Agency to be a Best Available Control Technology (BACT) for avoiding criteria pollutant and/or greenhouse gas emissions, then a standard can be required for documenting the emission reductions resulting from efficiency actions. The third reason for a national EM&V standard is that such a standard is likely to be required as a result of future federal energy legislation that includes end-use energy efficiency, either as a stand-alone energy-efficiency resource standard (EERS) or as part of a clean energy or renewable energy standard. This study is focused primarily on this third reason and thus explores issues associated with a national EM&V standard if energy efficiency is a qualifying resource in federal clean energy legislation. Developing a national EM&V standard is likely to be a lengthy process; this study focuses on the critical first step of identifying the issues that must be addressed in a future standard. Perhaps the most fundamental of these issues is 'how good is good enough?' This has always been the fundamental issue of EM&V for energy efficiency and is a result of the counter-factual nature of efficiency. Counter-factual in that savings are not measured, but estimated to varying degrees of accuracy by comparing energy consumption after a project (program) is implemented with what is assumed to have been the consumption of energy in the absence of the project (program). Therefore, the how good is good enough question is a short version of asking how certain does one have to be of the energy savings estimate that results from EM&V activities and is that level of certainty properly balanced against the amount of effort (resources, time, money) that is utilized to obtain that level of certainty. The implication is that not only should energy efficiency investments be cost-effective, but EM&V investments should consider risk management principles and thus also balance the costs and value of information derived from EM&V (EM&V should also be cost-effective).
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Environmental Energy Technologies Division
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 1006400
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-4265E; TRN: US201106%%867
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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