Since 2010, E Source has collected demand-side management (DSM) annual reports from across Canada and the US to benchmark the performance of DSM portfolios. The DSM Achievements and Expenditures series allows utilities to quickly compare the performance of their portfolio to that of their peers’ portfolios. It also offers a broad set of portfolio metrics that paint a more holistic picture of DSM efforts. The summary report—with numerous tables, charts, and comparisons—is accompanied by a downloadable Excel spreadsheet containing the complete data set.
DSM Achievements and Expenditures displays fuel-specific results for more than 50 DSM portfolios, including data on:
- Overall portfolio
- Nonresidential programs
- Residential programs
- Low-income programs
- Multifamily programs
With four years of surveys, there’s plenty of ways to slice the data and examine year-over-year trends. Metrics benchmarked at each portfolio level include:
- Energy savings as a percentage of sales
- Planned energy savings versus achieved
- Per capita energy savings
- DSM expenditures as a percentage of revenue
- Cost of annual energy savings
- Per capita expenditures
- Budgets versus actual spending
DSM Achievements and Expenditures also provides critical information on each utility that enables an apples-to-apples comparison. Utility data include:
- State of operation
- Fuel type (gas-only, electric-only, or dual-fuel)
- Ownership structure
- Residential, commercial, and industrial customer counts and retail sales
- Revenue
- Demand peaking season
Methodology
DSM Achievements and Expenditures consists of data pulled directly from utility annual DSM reports. We use DSM Insights—which serves as a repository for annual DSM reports, plans, evaluations, and other regulatory filings—to find the documentation. To focus on efficiency and conservation programs, we don’t include energy savings and expenditures attributed to renewable energy technologies, specifically customer-sited solar photovoltaic systems.