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Overview of State Policies for Energy Efficiency in Buildings

  • End-Use Efficiency (Y Wang, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

This paper introduces the major state-level regulations and policies for improving energy efficiency in buildings. The purpose of the review is to discuss the challenges and issues in policy implementation and the latest trend in adopting innovative instruments.

Recent Findings

The implementation of customer efficiency programs increasingly incorporates non-price instruments to encourage participation and deep savings. States pay attention to not only code adoption and update but also compliance and evaluation. Many states have adopted innovative policy instruments, including decoupling mechanisms and performance incentives to make energy efficiency a good business model for utilities, dynamic pricing to reduce consumption and peak load, flexible financing to provide incentives, and green labeling and benchmarking policies to increase information transparency.

Summary

State governments continue to be the primary decision-makers for improving energy efficiency in buildings. Combined efforts on code/standard compliance and innovative policies are the leading strategy to promote energy efficiency.

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Notes

  1. In DE, D.C., HI, ME, NJ, NY, OR, VT, and WI, customer EE programs are funded through public benefit funds and run by third parties.

  2. The International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol is one of the most important tools that are widely used by EM&V processes.

  3. A Senate bill was introduced in 2015, proposing a 20% electricity savings and 13% natural gas savings target by 2030.

  4. The International Energy Conservation Codes (IECC) for residential buildings developed by the International Code Council are widely adopted. For non-residential buildings, codes developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHREA) are used by many states in the USA and by other countries.

  5. The U.S. Department of Energy is promoting the Energy Star Portfolio Manager, an online benchmarking and data management tool, for energy and water usage information.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, Iowa State University, Ames, USA

    Yu Wang

  2. Ames, USA

    Yu Wang

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Yu Wang is a section editor for Current Sustainable/Renewable Energy Reports. She declares no other conflicts of interest.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on End-Use Efficiency

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Wang, Y. Overview of State Policies for Energy Efficiency in Buildings. Curr Sustainable Renewable Energy Rep 5, 101–108 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40518-018-0100-1

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