Market Analysis Subcommittee Updates: Review of NEEA’s Retail Product Portfolio

The RTF’s Market Analysis Subcommittee was first convened in late 2015 as a means to provide in-depth, expert informed review of market research going on in the region, such as that being performed by Bonneville and NEEA. This market analysis research is important in informing the broader region’s load forecasting, conservation planning, and program operation. Additionally, market analysis research allows the RTF to craft work products that more accurately reflect current market conditions and product flows, so that measure baselines are formed from more reliable market data. This subcommittee reviews analysis methodologies and results to provide valuable feedback, helping to ensure these highly important efforts are completed in a rigorous and transparent way.

Most recently, the Subcommittee convened to review NEEA’s development of regional unit energy consumption estimates for their Retail Product Portfolio (RPP). NEEA’s RPP is a suite of mid-stream incentives on a portfolio of products aimed to influence retailers’ stocking and assortment decisions toward more efficient models. NEEA collects data from a variety of large appliance retailers to inform this work, including data on clothes washers, refrigerators, dryers, and freezers. NEEA brought this work to the subcommittee seeking review on key decision points, such as how to address gaps in the data and how best to extrapolate the data to a regional estimate. Future plans for the Market Analysis Subcommittee will be the review of new market models Bonneville is developing for HVAC equipment and water heating, as well as continuing the review of the product specific assumptions used in NEEA’s RPP.

As with all RTF subcommittees, the Market Analysis Subcommittee is open to the public, and participation from the region’s efficiency community is encouraged, especially individuals with experience working with market data. If you or any individual from your organization has expertise relevant to the subcommittee’s upcoming work, and would like to be added to the email distribution list, please send your contact information to rtfadmin@nwcouncil.org. Additionally, for meeting announcements and future agendas and materials, be sure to check the subcommittee webpage regularly, here.