GEED 2009 - Panel Three: Are We Ready to Measure Success? Facing the Challenge of EM&V

Given the substantial savings accrued by both private and public sector implementation of energy efficiency, how close are we to accurately measuring our success, and how clearly can we benchmark our progress in order to rise to new and better standards?

Representing the U.S. EPA, Kathleen Hogan, director of Climate Protection Partnerships Division asserted that evaluation, measurement and verification (EM&V) of energy efficiency will be crucial to developing a strategy for meeting climate change objectives. She outlined the ways in which EM&V is practiced at the U.S. EPA, particularly with ENERGY STAR, one of its most successful campaigns to date. Hogan noted that EM&V is not one-size-fits-all: different programs require different approaches.

Joe Loper, the Alliance's executive vice president for Policy and Research and a Certified Measurement and Verification Professional, offered insight to the practice of EM&V, a topic he has been researching for many years. Determining whether a given energy efficiency project is responsible for a reduction in energy consumption requires a number of tough steps, and there won't always be a pat answer. But Loper stressed the importance of having a continuity among the EM&V systems of various states and programs, underscoring the need for a national EM&V protocol.

A reputable expert on the topic of EM&V, Steven Schiller, principal of Schiller Consulting, Inc, assured the GEED audience that despite the challenges in determining energy savings to a useful degree of precision, "it can be done." He outlined the two main steps in EM&V: determining the savings potential of a measure by ensuring that it was installed, and making sure that the predicted savings from the measure are being realized. Schiller represented EM&V as more of an opportunity than a roadblock. "Things that are measured," he explained, "tend to improve."

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