U.S. Electric Budgets
Over the reporting period, U.S. budgets for electric energy efficiency programs grew each year by double digits, with an increase from last year of 18 percent. CEE members administer 81 percent of the U.S. electric budgets reported.
States Make Dramatic Gains
Several states made enormous gains. For example, New Mexico’s current budget is 29 times the size of last year’s, going from $312,000 to $9,000,000. This increase is due to the governor signing legislation requiring cost-effective efficiency gains with specific goals and new incentives for utilities to meet the goals. Likewise, Ohio’s current budget is 20 times that of last year, increasing from just over $3,000,000 to $62,000,000. Illinois’ current budget is almost 5 times that of last year, reaching from $8,500,000 to $41,000,000. These three states exemplify the impact new regulatory legislation can have on our industry.
Electric Program Budgets By Sector
As in previous years, commercial and industrial programs continue to dominate U.S. electric efficiency budgets. In 2008, they account for 48 percent of electric budgets (excluding load management), with residential program budgets accounting for 30 percent and low income budgets for 13 percent.[1] The “other” category, which accounts for 9 percent of electric budgets in 2008, varies somewhat by state and includes items that not all program administrators allocate by sector, such as administration, advertising, agriculture, education and training, codes and standards, EM&V, and so on.[2]
[1]. Electric sector percentages are calculated excluding load management budgets from the total.
[2]. Percentages may not total to 100 due to rounding.
The above table includes Evaluation, Measurement, and Verification (EM&V) in the totals. The below table breaks out EM&V from the subset of organizations who reported EM&V as a separate line item.
