New Report: Measuring Three Rs of Electric Energy Efficiency: Risk, Reliability, and Resilience

February, 2020 — Topic Brief by American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy supported by E4TheFuture.

Ever wonder if utilities measure for risk, reliability, and/or resilience in their efficiency programs? Very few program administrators account for “three Rs” impacts in their benefit-cost analyses of efficiency resources.

With fires and severe storms causing billions of dollars in damage annually plus uncertainties around future fuel/related avoided costs, it is necessary to consider – and account for – the benefits of energy efficiency (and other distributed energy resources) associated with the three Rs.

Energy efficiency offers crucial grid stability and resilience to balance supply and demand from increasing investment in renewable power generation.

This brief explores how stakeholders can quantify three Rs in their cost-effectiveness tests for energy efficiency.

While collectively called the three Rs, these efficiency impacts are all critical and distinct components of utility system benefits.

Risk covers exposure to factors that will undesirably increase system costs or adversely affect service; reliability pertains to low-impact, high-probability events; and resilience covers high-impact, low-probability events.

Download the brief from ACEEE.