Hello everyone,
Welcome to another issue of NEEA’s Market Research and Evaluation quarterly newsletter! It’s been a relatively calm start to the new year. While there always seems to be a steady stream of studies starting up and closing out, the first quarter is typically a slow and steady ascent into the relative bustle of the next nine months ahead. Things continue to proceed at a steady clip with the three HVAC programs (High-Performance HVAC, Efficient Gas Rooftop Units and Variable Speed Heat Pumps). These are newer programs that are each in the “Program Development” stage, meaning NEEA staff are validating confidence in the product attributes, market opportunity, savings potential and mechanism for diffusion for the programs to ensure interventions are scalable to the full market.
In the next few months, MRE will scope and contract out third-party reviews of these three programs’ naturally occurring baseline forecasts. These study results will inform NEEA’s estimate of the “pre-market intervention” baseline adoption of the HVAC technology and the forecasted adoption over the next twenty to thirty years, assuming the alliance was to not intervene in the market with a market transformation program. NEEA can then compare against this baseline forecast to estimate the energy savings associated with the program’s influence in the market. The HVAC programs will also be refining their logic models to reflect learnings (from market research, as well as through other efforts) about the market barriers that the programs will need to overcome and the opportunities that programs can leverage.
This is an exciting, but busy time for the HVAC programs due to the many HVAC focused projects detailed in the newsletter. But there’s lots more going on!
Take a look and as always, please reach out with any questions or feedback.
Amy Webb, Sr. Manager, Market Research and Evaluation
