Review of Minnesota Electric and Gas Utility Avoided Costs

Synapse reviewed the avoided costs used by the four electric utilities in Minnesota for their Conservation Improvement Programs.  The analysis included a description of "best practices" for estimating avoided costs, a review of each utility's methodology and assumptions, a comparison of avoided cost results across all four utilities, and a set of recommendations for future avoided cost estimates.  Synapse reviewed avoided energy, avoided generation capacity, avoided transmission, and avoided distribution costs.  Synapse further reviewed the methodology used to estimate avoided gas demand costs. Project completed in December 2004.