NEEP Regional EM&V Forum Adopts Cost-Effectiveness Screening Guidelines Prepared by Synapse

Correction: The title of this post has been updated to more accurately reflect the nature of the project.

Synapse recently prepared a regulatory guidance document on several key principles of energy efficiency cost-effectiveness screening for the NEEP Regional Evaluation, Measurement and Verification Forum.  The EM&V Forum subsequently adopted the Cost-Effectiveness Screening Principles and Guidelines as a Forum product.

The Forum is an initiative of the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP), a non-profit that promotes energy efficiency in the building sector and represents states in New England, New York, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia. The Forum’s guidelines establish overarching principles that states should consider using when reviewing their energy efficiency screening practices and provide specific guidance on challenging elements of cost-effectiveness screening, such as how to account for non-energy impacts and how to choose the appropriate discount rate.

The document, which is now available on the Forum’s “Forum Product” page, was informed by a survey of state cost-effectiveness screening practices that showed the application of screening tests varies widely among the states represented by the initiative. Rather than prescribing specific steps for all states, the guidelines provide a common framework to ensure that future decisions about cost-effectiveness screening are transparent and aligned with the public interest.

The guidelines were prepared by Synapse’s Tim Woolf, Erin Malone, and Frank Ackerman.