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PAPERS

GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT OF GRID COMPANY (DSM) ACTIVITIES IN CHINA

October 31 2012

A paper published with Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) that draws on international experience to recommend six steps for establishing effective government oversight of the Chinese grid companies’ new demand-side management (DSM) activities.

AN EMPIRICAL MODEL FOR PREDICTING ELECTRIC ENERGY EFFICIENCY ACQUISITION COSTS IN NORTH AMERICA: ANALYSIS AND APPLICATION

August 10th, 201

Energy efficiency resource standards (EERS) are becoming the policy tool of choice for stimulating investment in demand-side substitutes for electricity supply. After summarizing published information on savings and expenditures by efficiency resource portfolios across the United States over the past five years, this paper presents the results of multiple regression analysis of actual and planned annual electric energy savings and spending by over thirty portfolio administrators in the United States and Canada. The estimated coefficients reveal two opposing forces predicted by economic theory for deepening efficiency resource acquisition: economies of scale and diminishing marginal returns. The empirical model also found statistically significant covariance, the measurement of how variables change together, between efficiency resource costs and temporal, sectoral, and geographic characteristics of efficiency portfolios. Finally, the paper illustrates how the statistical model can be used to predict future efficiency resource acquisition costs corresponding to energy savings targets and thus expected budgets in any jurisdiction or utility service area.

COMPREHENSIVE AND COST-EFFECTIVE: A NATURAL GAS UTILITY’S APPROACH TO DEEP NATURAL GAS RETROFITS FOR LOW INCOME CUSTOMERS

August 10th, 2012

Initial results and lessons learned from PGW’s Enhanced Low Income Retrofit Program (ELIRP).

WALKING THE WALK: CONSIDERING NON-TRANSMISSION ALTERNATIVES IN UTILITY PLANNING, PART DEUX

August 17th, 2008

Findings from an analysis of non-transmission alternatives (NTAs) to a bulk system 345 kV transmission line upgrade in Vermont. This paper is a continuation of utility planning activities in Vermont highlighted by a 2006 paper.

COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE OF ELECTRICAL ENERGY EFFICIENCY PORTFOLIOS IN SEVEN NORTHEAST STATES

August 13th, 2006

A comparison of savings yield, savings depth, and spending depth for electrical energy efficiency portfolios in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont.

“WALKING THE WALK” OF DISTRIBUTED UTILITY PLANNING: DEPLOYING DEMAND-SIDE TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION RESOURCES IN VERMONT’S “SOUTHERN LOOP”

 August 13th, 2006

The results of a study on demand-side management (DSM) as a least-cost option to meet the transmission and distribution (T&D) reliability needs of Vermont’s “Southern Loop”.

DEMAND-SIDE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIC PLAN FOR JIANGSU PROVINCE, CHINA: ECONOMIC, ELECTRIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL RETURNS FROM AN END-USE EFFICIENCY INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO IN THE JIANGSU POWER SECTOR

August 13th, 2006

An overview of the vast opportunities for offsetting electric baseline and peak demand growth through cost-effective demand-side management (DSM) in the Jiangsu Province of the Peoples Republic of China. The paper also discusses efforts underway to build a policy structure that will allow energy efficiency to serve as a fundamental component of DSM.

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