Advancing energy efficiency across the Northwest means more than innovative technologies and strong partnerships, it requires trusted market insights and evaluation to determine if NEEA’s efforts are driving real progress. That’s where NEEA’s team of Market Research and Evaluation (MRE) scientists play a critical role.

From developing a deep understanding of a new target market to measuring long-term impact, NEEA’s MRE scientists support every stage of NEEA’s Market Transformation work. Through rigorous research, structured evaluation and data-driven insights, the team helps ensure that programs are grounded in evidence, responsive to changing market conditions and delivering measurable value to the entire region.

Two recent MRE projects – one focused on agricultural pumps and another on building energy codes – demonstrate how research and evaluation help guide Market Transformation strategy while helping the alliance better understand the range and depth of the markets it serves.

Research: Building a Hyper-Local Understanding of Agricultural Irrigation

Agriculture is a cornerstone of the Northwest economy, and pumping equipment is central to its success. From irrigating crops and moving water across large distances to distributing fertilizers, pumps play an essential role in agricultural operations that affect the energy and water efficiency of agricultural lands.

Recognizing the opportunity to better understand this sector, NEEA’s Extended Motor Products (XMP) – Pumps program launched a market research study focused on agricultural pumping systems. Historically, the program’s work has focused primarily on the commercial and residential sectors, but agriculture represents a large pump market with meaningful energy-savings potential. Expanding into this sector required a deeper understanding of how farmers make purchasing decisions and what factors influence their equipment choices.

To gather those insights, the research team engaged farmers, installers, manufacturers and equipment representatives across all four Northwest states: Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. The goal was to better understand market dynamics, motivations and barriers related to agricultural pump purchases.

The biggest research challenge was reaching the right audiences. As with many current research efforts, traditional recruitment methods, such as emails and cold calls, are proving less effective. Instead, the research team tried something different: meeting farmers where they already gather.

Upon discovering that traditional recruitment approaches were struggling to elicit responses, researchers pivoted to visiting farmers markets and farms in the region to connect directly with farmers, farmers market participants and equipment manufacturers. By building relationships and establishing trust before inviting participation, this on-the-ground approach not only helped reach participants across the region but also enabled effective recruiting. Participants frequently recommended additional market actors and made introductions, which strengthened engagement in the study and surfaced valuable perspectives that otherwise would have been missed.

The findings highlighted just how nuanced agricultural water systems can be. Even neighboring farms can operate under vastly different conditions, including variations in water rights, geography and irrigation methods. For example, one farm may rely on gravity-fed water systems while another must pump water extensively.

Although cost is a major consideration, study participants showed clear interest in cost-effective, locally appropriate solutions that efficiently manage water and energy while maximizing crop yields especially given their unique conditions.

For the alliance, these insights provide an important foundation for exploring new opportunities to bring efficient pumping technologies to agricultural markets while ensuring solutions align with the needs of rural communities. More broadly, the project revealed recruitment methodologies that can increase research effectiveness across sectors.

Evaluation: Capturing NEEA’s Influence Through Building Energy Codes

While market research helps identify opportunities, evaluation ensures that NEEA’s work is delivering meaningful results. A recent effort to update how NEEA evaluates its influence on building energy codes across the Northwest illustrates this role. Building codes are one of the most powerful tools for improving efficiency across the region. Once adopted, they set baseline requirements that affect every new building constructed.

However, measuring the impact of codes work isn’t straightforward. To understand the savings associated with new code requirements, evaluators must estimate what would have happened in the market without NEEA’s involvement.

To address this challenge, the MRE team, in close consultation with NEEA’s Codes and Standards team, recently completed a comprehensive review of its baseline methodology for codes. The updated approach recognizes that energy codes vary widely across each Northwest state and evolve over time. Instead of applying a single evaluation method across the region, the new framework tailors analysis by state, sector (residential or commercial) and code cycle to better reflect the unique policy environments and timelines in each jurisdiction.

The updated approach also acknowledges the long-term nature of Market Transformation. In some cases, NEEA may introduce new efficiency ideas years before they are adopted into code. Those early conversations and collaborations help shape future codes even if the results appear several cycles later.

By better capturing influence that emerges over multiple years and business cycles, the revised evaluation approach will provide a clearer picture of NEEA’s role in advancing efficiency across the Northwest.

Grounded in Evidence, Focused on Progress

Market Research and Evaluation activities remain central to NEEA’s work. In addition to producing many other MRE work products, each year the team conducts multiple Market Progress Evaluation Reports (MPERs) – comprehensive studies that track how markets are evolving and whether NEEA’s programs are influencing progress as intended. The next Codes MPER is expected to be finalized in 2027 and will make use of this newly recommended review framework.

Upcoming research will continue to explore new market opportunities, deepen understanding of rural and regional dynamics, and refine the methods used to measure progress.

Together, these efforts ensure that NEEA’s strategies remain grounded in evidence and focused on delivering lasting efficiency benefits for businesses and consumers across the Northwest.