For the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), data has always been a core part of Market Transformation. And as the alliance moves deeper into Cycle 7, the role of data is evolving — becoming even more strategic, more integrated across markets, and more instrumental in delivering long-term value to funders.

Investing in a Stronger Data Foundation

In Cycle 6, NEEA expanded its data collection capacity, establishing systems and partnerships that give the alliance and its funders an unprecedented view of the market. Now, that foundation is allowing NEEA to ask sharper questions, identify barriers earlier, and pinpoint the most effective points of intervention.

Delivering Market Impact

NEEA’s data efforts are already delivering tangible results across multiple markets.

HVAC:

Beginning with just five suppliers in 2017, NEEA now receives full-category data from 17 suppliers, covering up to 70% of the market. This expanded dataset has enabled the alliance to move beyond efficiency basics and track forward-looking metrics like cold-climate capability and low-load performance. Those insights proved critical in helping to shape the Consortium for Energy Efficiency’s revised residential HVAC specification, which is referenced in programs across the U.S. and Canada. By layering sales and performance data, NEEA provided unique market analysis that helped ensure the specification reflected real product performance and consumer needs.

Recent sales insights underscore just how rapidly the Northwest market is shifting toward high‑performance, variable speed HVAC technologies. Variable-speed systems use inverter driven compressors that adjust output instead of running at a single fixed speed, delivering better comfort and higher efficiency for households. Variable speed systems now account for more than half of all ducted heat pump sales in the region. When ductless systems are included, variable-speed heat pumps represent more than two‑thirds of all heat pumps sold in the Northwest¹. This striking transformation over the past decade highlights strong market alignment with the advanced efficiency features NEEA and its partners have long worked to promote.

Televisions:

Televisions are among the most common consumer electronics in Northwest homes, with roughly 1.4 million new TVs purchased each year. As screen sizes increase, average “on” hours remain elevated and standby modes become more active, even incremental efficiency improvements can deliver significant regional energy savings when applied at scale.

When NEEA’s monitoring of TV sales revealed a gap between expected and actual energy use, the alliance shared those findings with manufacturers and program administrators. That data helped strengthen voluntary television specifications and reinforce manufacturer commitments, positioning the Northwest to better capture meaningful energy savings. As manufacturers responded, the number of ENERGY STAR-certified TV models available to consumers increased by 55% in a single year, reaching 152 models by the end of 2025. Full adoption represents up to 108 GWh in potential energy savings, illustrating how data-informed market coordination can translate into measurable, region-wide impact.

Read more about NEEA’s efforts to expand consumer options for efficient televisions.

Looking Ahead: Cycle 7 Priorities

As the alliance progresses through Cycle 7, data strategy is shifting from building capacity to leveraging market data in new and deeper ways. Priorities include:

• Scaling collection efforts: Expanding sales data partnerships into additional product categories to strengthen regional visibility.
• New stock assessments: Publishing the 2025 Commercial Building Stock Assessment and the launching first Motor System Stock Assessment since 2000, providing data that will directly inform utility planning and regional power forecasts.
• Northwest market characterization: Advancing studies to better understand how energy efficiency opportunities vary across the region, to refine future efficiency and affordability strategies.
• Continuous refinement: Using data to evaluate market interventions in real time and adjusting strategies as conditions shift.

Providing Unique Regional Value

Because the alliance pools resources, no single utility bears the full weight of these efforts. Instead, NEEA’s data infrastructure provides all funders with access to insights that would be difficult — and costly — to achieve alone.

As technologies evolve and policy landscapes shift, NEEA’s data strategy will continue to serve as both a guidepost and a safeguard, ensuring that the alliance’s work delivers measurable value and long-term savings for Northwest funders and consumers alike.