On-Bill Finance: From Policy to Promise to Practice

The primary objectives of this paper are to: (1) provide an updated view of national and international experience with on-bill financing programs and (2) offer state policymakers and program administrators actionable insights on key program design considerations. We reviewed 30 programs in the US and abroad and interviewed program administrators to prepare in-depth case studies on 13 of these. The paper offers a detailed characterization of key on-bill program design choices. These design elements are likely to have important impacts on a program’s value to policymakers, lenders, investors, efficiency service providers and consumers. The paper finds that, over their program lifetimes, the 30 on-bill programs in this study have delivered over $1.8 billion of financing to consumers for energy improvements. Default rates over the program lifetimes ranged from zero to three percent.