M&V techniques can be used by facility owners or energy efficiency project investors for the following purposes:

Increase energy savings

Accurate determination of energy savings gives facility owners and managers valuable feedback on their energy conservation measures (ECMs). This feedback helps them adjust ECM design or operations to improve savings, achieve greater persistence of savings over time, and lower variations in savings.

Document financial transactions

For some projects, the energy efficiency savings are the basis for performance-based financial payments and/or a guarantee in a performance contract. A well-defined and implemented M&V Plan can be the basis for documenting performance in a transparent manner and subjected to independent verification.

Enhance financing for efficiency projects

A good M&V Plan increases the transparency and credibility of reports on the outcome of efficiency investments. It also increases the credibility of projections for the outcome of efficiency investments. This credibility can increase the confidence that investors and sponsors have in energy efficiency projects, enhancing their chances of being financed.

Improve engineering design and facility operations and maintenance

The preparation of a good M&V Plan encourages comprehensive project design by including all M&V costs in the project’s economics. Good M&V also helps managers discover and reduce maintenance and operating problems, so they can run facilities more effectively. Good M&V also provides feedback for future project designs.

Manage energy budgets

Even where savings are not planned, M&V techniques help managers evaluate and manage energy usage to account for variances from budgets. M&V techniques are used to adjust for changing facility-operating conditions in order to set proper budgets and account for budget variances.

Enhance the value of emission-reduction credits

Accounting for emission reductions provides additional value to efficiency projects. Use of an M&V Plan for determining energy savings improves emissions-reduction reports compared to reports with no M&V Plan.

Support evaluation of regional efficiency programs

Utilty or government programs for managing the usage of an energy supply system can use M&V techniques to evaluate the savings at selected energy user facilities. Using statistical techniques and other assumptions, the savings determined by M&V activities at selected individual facilities can help predict savings at unmeasured sites in order to report the performance of the entire program.

Increase public understanding of energy management as a public policy tool

By improving the credibility of energy management projects, M&V increases public acceptance of the related emission reduction. Such public acceptance encourages investment in energy-efficiency projects or the emission credits they may create. By enhancing savings, good M&V practice highlights the public benefits provided by good energy management, such as improved community health, reduced environmental degradation, and increased employment