Program Planning & Design

Follow the Leaders

The steps for assessing cost-effectiveness and the potential impacts of different energy efficiency measures are fairly standardized throughout the industry. By applying information about your local market, drivers and goals in these calculations, you’ll be well on your way to successful program implementation.

Some utilities may have budgets for (or be required to do) rigorous analysis that involves teams ranging from engineers to statisticians to economists. If you don’t, don’t worry – several roadmaps are available to help you cover all your bases and existing datasets can help simplify your research. If you are just starting out or are expanding into new areas, it’s recommended that you explore the Best Practices section of the CEEP library, borrow from the lessons learned by others and spend time fine-tuning already proven program models to fit your circumstances, not inventing new ones.

Getting Started

Market research will help you understand how your customers use energy and the potential value of energy efficiency resources to your utility. From there, you can assemble a list of possible programs to consider and screen them based on technical and market potential, cost-effectiveness and other qualitative factors. This process will help you identify a short list of the most promising programs.

Making Adjustments

Program planning and design is a learning process, not a linear one. Many steps are taken in parallel and tend to inform each other, so it’s important to revisit early decisions and even repeat some steps as you move through development and execution.