SEE Action Guide for States: Guidance on Establishing and Maintaining Technical Reference Manuals for Energy Efficiency Measures

The goal of this guide is to support the development, maintenance, and use of accurate and reliable Technical Reference Manuals (TRMs). TRMs provide information primarily used for estimating the energy and demand savings of end-use energy efficiency measures associated with utility customer-funded efficiency programs.

This guide:

• Describes existing TRMs in the United States
• Provides recommendations for TRM best practices
• Provides related background information on energy efficiency, evaluation, measurement, and verification (EM&V), and TRM basics.

The information and recommendations in this guide can be used to help improve the quality of existing TRMs as they are updated, and new TRMs as they are developed. High quality TRMs with consistent savings values and methods can increase confidence in the quantification of impacts associated with efficiency actions and support increased implementation of cost-effective efficiency actions.

The intended audience is state utility regulators, administrators of energy efficiency programs (including publicly owned and investor-owned utilities and government and nongovernmental organizations), efficiency program implementers, evaluation consultants, and other stakeholders, such as industry representatives and consumer advocates.

Users of this guide with related energy efficiency program or evaluation experience can go directly to summaries of how existing TRMs address various topics and the specific recommendations. The guide is also organized so that those without such experience can benefit from the background chapters and appendices.