Low-income energy efficiency programs and energy consumption

Pedro Hancevic and Hector H. Sandoval

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2022, vol. 113, issue C

Abstract: Low-income energy efficiency programs have become a major component of cities’ energy policy, with 49 out of 51 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. offering one. This paper uses data from Gainesville Regional Utility to quantify the impacts of the housing investment done by its Low-income Energy Efficiency Program Plus (LEEP Plus) on energy consumption. Our results show that LEEP Plus does not affect natural gas consumption but reduces electricity consumption by approximately 7%, with greater savings occurring in the summer and winter. The effect on electricity consumption is significant to a variety of robustness checks and remains for at least 24 months after the completion of energy efficiency upgrades. We also measure some relevant heterogeneous effects, one of which is the breakdown of the air-conditioning-related investments, the main energy efficiency improvement under the LEEP Plus program. Finally, we evaluate the energy savings in monetary terms considering the private cost changes and the social cost changes. In both cases, the associated energy savings are not enough to offset the investment costs.

Keywords: Energy efficiency; Electricity consumption; Low-income program; Heterogeneous effects; Social marginal costs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C20 I38 Q40 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:113:y:2022:i:c:s0095069622000341

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2022.102656

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