Northeast Regional Energy Efficiency Database (REED) 2020 data update
Release date: September 11, 2023
Electric and natural gas utilities and state energy efficiency (EE) organizations offer incentives that are an important component of evolving state and local EE policies. To understand how these incentives affect energy consumption and technology choices in buildings, we incorporate nonfederal EE incentives for a variety of end-use technologies into our National Energy Modeling System’s (NEMS) Residential Demand Module (RDM) and Commercial Demand Module (CDM). We use NEMS to produce long-term projections of energy use within the United States.
The RDM and CDM represent consumer choice among various energy-consuming equipment in buildings, ranging from technologies that meet federal minimum EE standards to more efficient alternatives. These modules subtract incentives (equipment subsidies or rebates) from installed costs for equipment or appliances that meet or exceed ENERGY STAR® specifications in their respective technology choice menus. This approach lowers the relative cost of high-efficiency equipment.
To enhance our representation of state and utility EE programs in NEMS, we contracted with the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) to characterize these programs in the Northeast in fiscal year 2022. As part of this contract, NEEP updated its Regional Energy Efficiency Database (REED) to include 2020 incentive data for the District of Columbia and nine states in the New England, Middle Atlantic, and South Atlantic Census Divisions. REED provides information on several metrics, including:
- Annual and lifetime energy savings
- Peak demand savings
- Program expenditures
- The cost of saved energy
- Program funding sources
REED incentive data are available to the public by request on NEEP’s REED website. As part of this contract, NEEP also updated the Supporting Information report. The report complements the complete REED data set, detailing information about each state that is characterized in the updates to the REED database, which now includes 2020 data about energy efficiency programs in Delaware and Pennsylvania. The report also provides details about program administrators, reporting procedures, and evaluation, measurement, and verification practices. It also provides information about NEEP’s energy savings assumptions.
NEEP also developed a video that demonstrates how to use REED data to analyze the cost effectiveness of energy efficiency programs. In addition, NEEP used the newly added 2020 data as well as historical REED data to identify and discuss trends in energy efficiency as part of the Regional Energy Data Dive blog series.
You can cite the contract report as a report by the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) prepared for the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).