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Electric utilities, government agencies, and private interests in the US have committed and continue to invest substantial resources – including billions of dollars of financial capital – in the pursuit of energy efficiency and conservation through demand-side management (DSM) programs. While most of these programs are deemed to be cost effective, and therefore in the public interest, opportunities exist to improve cost effectiveness by targeting programs to those customers with the greatest potential for energy savings. This article details an analysis of three DSM programs offered by three Florida municipal electric utilities to explore such opportunities. First, we estimate programs’ energy savings impacts; second, we measure and compare energy savings across subgroups of program participants as determined by their pre-intervention energy performance, and third, we explore potential changes in program impacts that might be realized by targeting specific customers for participation in the DSM programs. All three programs resulted in statistically significant average (per-participant) energy savings, yet average savings varied widely, with the customers who performed best (i.e., most efficient) before the intervention saving the least energy and those who performed worst (i.e., least efficient) before the intervention saving the most. Assessment of alternative program participation scenarios with varying levels of customer targeting suggests that program impacts could be increased by as much as 80% for a professional energy audit program, just over 100% for a high-efficiency heat pump upgrade program, and nearly 250% for an attic insulation upgrade program. Findings are directly relevant for utility program administrators seeking to improve program outcomes.

PurposeThis paper seeks to describe a protocol to estimate annual community energy consumption baselines for single‐family detached homes in the Gainesville Regional Utility service area of Alachua County, Florida, USA. Further, it details methods using these baselines to make direct comparisons of individual households' energy consumption and evaluate the energy impacts of three prescriptive demand side management (DSM) programs.Design/methodology/approachTo improve estimates of energy savings, the paper proposes using a “micro” scale multivariate regression methodology based on a census of utility and property appraiser household data.FindingsResults suggest that traditional analysis approaches are likely to overestimate savings significantly and that the annual community baseline technique provides more consistent estimates of energy savings than most commonly used methods.Practical implicationsThis type of analysis could provide a tool that utilities can use to more accurately and cost effectively measure DSM savings. This could result in reduced energy demand related to streamlined program setup and management.Originality/valueThe proposed methodology is unique in that it defines a new household‐level energy consumption baseline measure that we think is a more appropriate performance measure, uses a census of publicly available data for the population of interest, merging metered utility data with property appraiser data, and works upward to construct a simple model for evaluating household‐level energy consumption. The critical element that distinguishes our proposed energy performance measures is that they are calculated and interpreted using annual, population‐level, comparison‐group baselines that effectively normalize for community energy consumption patterns in any given year.

It is crucial to engage stakeholders in Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) development to improve the acceptance of load and wasteload allocation decisions, collect data about the water quality parameters and locations of pollution sources, and facilitate TMDL implementation by the key stakeholders. Although this idea may seem straightforward and should work in theory, it is difficult to implement in practice. This study evaluates stakeholder engagement in developing an implementation plan (called Basin Management Action Plan, or BMAP) for nutrient and dissolved oxygen TMDL in the Lower St. Johns River Basin in northeast Florida. The complex land use pattern in this 2,750-square-mile basin (covering the metropolitan Jacksonville area, the Tri-County Agricultural Area, and publicly owned lands) reflects the diverse interests and opinions of the TMDL stakeholders. Three focus group studies conducted with the major stakeholder groups (agriculture, local government, and environmental groups) showed that the BMAP stakeholder engagement process did not meet stakeholders’ expectations for the following evaluation criteria: (a) representation of all relevant parties, views, values, and interests; (b) continuity of stakeholder involvement; (c) stakeholders’ power to influence decisions about the plan; (d) structure of the decision-making process; and (e) resources available to stakeholders. The results of the study allowed us to develop recommendations that include a broader representation of stakeholder groups, a combination of stakeholder engagement methods, delivery of relevant information and technical assistance to stakeholders, transfer of power for making TMDL/BMAP decisions to the stakeholders, and evaluation of the stakeholder involvement process across watersheds in Florida and in other states.