Aligning regulations with energy efficiency

The inherent conflict between a utility’s business objectives and the objectives of customer energy efficiency programs is no secret; however, alternative regulatory mechanisms can be implemented that not only make utilities indifferent to the amount of energy they sell, but can provide positive earnings from their customer energy-efficiency programs.

How well do these mechanisms work? The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) examined a number of utilities with large-scale energy-efficiency programs serving all types of customers to find out, interviewing utility program managers and executives, and clean-energy advocates and regulators, as well as examining the financial stock performance of these utilities.

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