Evaluating energy and non-energy impacts of energy conservation programs: A supply curve framework of analysis

Historically, the assessment of energy-conservation programs has been focused primarily on energy savings and costs. The recent, increased interest in global environmental problems (e.g., acid rain, ozone depletion, and the greenhouse effect) has made decision makers, as well as program evaluators, sensitive to the environmental impacts of all programs, including energy-conservation programs. Economic impacts of programs remain important policy concerns. Many state and local jurisdictions are concerned with the net effects of energy policies on economic growth, jobs, and tax revenues, as well as the impacts of growth and development on local energy issues (e.g., construction of new power plants). Consequently, policy makers need a methodology, as well as data, for easy comparisons of energy and non-energy impacts of a specific program in a consistent way, for both retrospective analysis and for prospective planning. We present the general concepts of a proposed new approach to multiattribute analysis, as an extension of the concept of supply curves of conserved energy. In their simplest form, energy conservation supply curves rank and display the savings from conservation measures in order of their cost-effectiveness. This simple concept is extended to reflect multiple decision criteria and some important linkages between energy and non-energy policy decisions (e.g., a supply curve of reduced carbon emissions or a supply curve of net local job-creation). The framework is flexible enough so that policy makers can weigh and compare each of the impacts to reflect their concerns and see the results in terms of program rankings. The advantages of this analysis framework are that it is simple to use, flexible, and replicable.