Taking a Holistic Approach to Markets: How Efficiency Vermont's Transition From Programs to Markets Is Changing the Way Energy Efficiency Services Are Developed and Delivered

Jennifer L. Chiodo, Jennifer Chiodo Consulting
Blair Hamilton, Efficiency Vermont

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Abstract

Efficiency Vermont was initially charged with delivering a pre-defined set of “core” energy efficiency programs across the state of Vermont under a performance based contract with Vermont’s Public Service Board when it was created in 2000. From the beginning, there was movement away from the constraints of these program boundaries. With each year of experience, Efficiency Vermont increasingly recognized that the internal barriers and external service gaps created by programmatic definitions were both impeding the ability to consistently affect the market and creating unnecessary confusion and barriers for customers and strategic partners.

Efficiency Vermont adopted a new approach and operating structure in 2003, with the approval of regulators, which integrates planning, development and implementation of market based services to customers and strategic partners, creating new momentum and opportunities in the marketplace. Business and residential Market Strategy Teams now take ownership for the full sector, looking across all boundaries to understand the players and interactions involved in decisions affecting energy use, employing integrated strategies to cost effectively impact those decisions, and reducing energy use. Market Strategy Teams include business development, marketing, planning and implementation staff and have access to information technology (IT), and technology and analysis resources to support their work. This paper lays out the transition from a set of core programs to markets, documenting a new operational paradigm for energy efficiency, including a discussion of what Efficiency Vermont has achieved in the early stages, and looking forward to a vision of fully integrated energy efficiency services.