Utilities are on track to meet aggressive energy efficiency (EE) goals (Sciortino et al.,2011) but their work is about to get harder. Shocks to the efficiency landscape, including thephase-out of CFL programs and falling generation costs, mean that fewer programs can deliverscalable, cost-effective energy savings. Utilities are turning to Behavioral Energy Efficiencyprograms to bolster their EE portfolios. Using behavioral psychology, these programs have beenproven to motivate customers to make smarter decisions and save energy.As utilities scale up behavioral programs, potential studies provide a helpful barometerfor achievable savings. So far, only a few studies assess the impact of behavioral programs. Wecalculate the industry’s first, state-by-state assessment of the achievable potential of behavioralefficiency programs. Based on results from 218 large-scale behavioral feedback programs acrossmore than 8 million households and 88 U.S. utilities, we find that utilities and states are currentlyunderinvesting in behavioral savings. Behavioral programs are cost-effective for 79 millionhouseholds, or 61% of the US population. Deployment of behavioral programs, at their fulleconomic potential, could generate 19,000 GWh in annual electricity savings and $2.2 billion inend-consumer savings per year.
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