Evaluation, Measurement & Verification

What EM&V Is and Why Independent Evaluation Matters

Evaluation, Measurement, and Verification (EM&V) is how we know whether energy efficiency programs are actually working. Utilities spend hundreds of millions of dollars on programs designed to reduce energy consumption. Regulators need to know those investments are producing real, measurable results. Building owners and program participants need to know the savings they are claiming are defensible. EM&V provides that accountability.

Independent evaluation is critical because the entity delivering a program should not be the same entity judging whether it worked. When a program administrator reports its own results, there is an inherent tension between advocacy and objectivity. Third-party evaluation resolves that tension by providing the independent perspective that regulators, ratepayers, and program administrators need to make sound decisions about where to invest next.

EM&V is not just about counting savings after the fact. Done well, it is woven into program design from the beginning. It shapes how programs collect data, define baselines, track participation, and report outcomes. The best evaluations start before the first participant enrolls.

Types of Evaluation

EM&V encompasses several distinct types of evaluation, each answering different questions about program performance:

• Impact evaluation answers the question: how much energy did the program actually save? This involves measuring and verifying savings at the project, program, or portfolio level. Methods range from engineering calculations for individual projects to statistical analysis of meter data across thousands of participants. Impact evaluation also addresses net-to-gross ratios, determining how much of the observed savings would have happened anyway without the program.
• Process evaluation answers the question: is the program running well? This examines program design, delivery mechanisms, customer experience, contractor engagement, and operational efficiency. Process evaluations identify bottlenecks, gaps in communication, and opportunities to improve participation rates and customer satisfaction.
• Market evaluation answers the question: is the program changing the market? This looks beyond direct participants to understand whether programs are influencing purchasing decisions, contractor practices, stocking patterns, and technology adoption in the broader market. Market effects can persist long after program incentives end.

Methods We Use

The methods we apply depend on the program design, the data available, and the questions being asked:

• Deemed savings use pre-calculated savings values for standard measures. A new high-efficiency furnace saves a specific number of therms per year based on engineering analysis and field data. These values are developed through rigorous measure development work and published in technical reference manuals. Deemed approaches work best for high-volume, standardized measures where individual measurement would be impractical.
• Custom M&V involves site-specific measurement for large or complex projects where deemed values do not apply. We install metering equipment, collect baseline and post-installation data, and calculate savings using established protocols like IPMVP (International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol). This approach is essential for industrial processes, large commercial retrofits, and non-standard installations.
• Normalized Metered Energy Consumption (NMEC) uses whole-building meter data to estimate savings at population scale. Rather than measuring savings project by project, NMEC compares pre- and post-intervention energy consumption across buildings using regression models that account for weather, occupancy, and other variables. This population-level approach allows us to evaluate programs with thousands of participants efficiently while capturing interactive effects that project-level methods miss.

Our Approach and Track Record

Lattice Energy Works has been conducting independent evaluation of energy efficiency programs for over three decades. We have evaluated programs for utilities, state agencies, and regional organizations across the Pacific Northwest and nationally. Our evaluations are designed to be rigorous enough to withstand regulatory scrutiny while being practical enough to deliver actionable recommendations that program managers can actually use.

We believe evaluation should be built into program design from the start, not bolted on after the fact. When evaluation plans are developed alongside program logic models, the data collection happens naturally, the research questions are clear, and the results are more useful to everyone involved. Programs that are designed without evaluation in mind routinely discover, years into operation, that they cannot demonstrate their savings because the right data was never collected.

Our evaluation teams include engineers, economists, and social scientists who bring different analytical lenses to the same questions. Energy savings are engineering questions. Attribution and causality are econometric questions. Customer experience and market dynamics require qualitative research methods. Rigorous evaluation draws on all three.

Our EM&V Work

See examples of our evaluation work in practice:

• Energy Trust of Oregon — 2020-21 Existing Building Programs
• Seattle City Light — Pay for Performance M&V Protocol
• Pacific Gas and Electric — Commercial Whole Building Demonstration
• Recurve Analytics — Engineering Review of Efficiency Projects
• Regional Technical Forum — Guidelines for Reliably Measuring Energy Savings

Start a Conversation

Whether you need an independent evaluation of an existing program, help designing an evaluation plan for a new initiative, or support navigating regulatory requirements for savings verification, we can help. Get in touch to talk about your evaluation needs.