N-1Annual Report - Year 4
14 passages
June 29, 2026 Crystal Henwood Clerk of the Board Nova Scotia Energy Board 1601 Lower Water Street, 3rd Floor Halifax, NS B3J 3S3 Re: CI C0021839 IT – Customer Energy Management 2025 Evaluation, Measurement and Verification Report – Extensi...
AI summary Nova Scotia Power Inc. (NS Power) requested an extension to file its 2025 Customer Energy Management (CEM) Evaluation, Measurement and Verification (EM&V) Report due to a cybersecurity incident impacting data availability and the unavailability of the My Energy Insights platform. The report was filed in two parts due to these data limitations.
EM&V Metrics The Year 4 report reports on the metrics established in the CEM EM&V Plan and approved by the Board for which data was available for 2025. Those metrics are as follows: 2 M12251, Board Decision, CI C0021839 IT – Customer Energ...
AI summary The Year 4 report discusses metrics from the CEM EM&V Plan, approved by the Board, with data available for 2025. It references a prior Board decision (M12251) related to the CEM 2024 (Year 3) report.
Evaluation, Measurement and Verification (EM&V) Report, July 8, 2025. CEM Effectiveness Category Measurement Metric Measurement Description What Is Measured How it Is Measured Measurement Approach To Be Included in 2025 Year 4 Evaluation C...
AI summary The EM&V report evaluates the effectiveness of the Customer Energy Management (CEM) program by analyzing billing impact, energy usage reduction, and load shifts for high and low user groups. Metrics include billed amounts, peak period usage, and load profiles, with a focus on residential and business rate classes.
by the end of 2022, 461,601 accounts with advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meters could access the CEM platform. As of November 2022, NS Power had implemented the following four alert features: - › High bill alerts: These consist of...
AI summary By the end of 2022, over 461,000 AMI metered accounts had access to the CEM platform. NS Power implemented four alert features, including high bill alerts, billing summaries, budget alerts, and projected cost alerts. An EM&V Plan for the CEM platform was filed with the Nova Scotia Energy Board in 2023, focusing on evaluating TVP participating customers and future annual evaluations for all customer types.
Evaluation Scope This assignment consisted of conducting an impact evaluation intended to measure the change in energy usage (kWh), customer load (kW), customer bills, and other cost-effectiveness measures due to the CEM. Per the EM&V Plan...
AI summary The evaluation scope outlines an impact assessment to measure changes in energy usage, customer load, and bills due to the Customer Energy Management (CEM) program, with metrics measured by usage group and rate code as per the EM&V Plan.
Table 1: Impact Evaluation Metrics CEM Effectiveness Category Measurement Metric Measurement Description What Is Measured How it Is Measured Measurement Approach To Be Included in 2025 Year 4 Evaluation Customer Load and Energy Billing Imp...
AI summary The document outlines evaluation metrics for assessing the effectiveness of the Customer Energy Management (CEM) program, focusing on customer load, energy usage, and cost-effectiveness. It also discusses unrealized impacts due to a cyber incident and how these should be interpreted as directional estimates rather than formal evaluations.
1 CEM Usage Overview This section presents CEM login data and how they were used to establish groups of non-, low, and high CEM users for the Year 4 CEM evaluation.
AI summary This section provides an overview of CEM login data and how it was used to categorize users into non-, low, and high CEM user groups for the Year 4 CEM evaluation.
2 Evaluation Methodology The EM&V Plan establishes a general methodology for measuring the impacts of the CEM platform. Econoler further refined that methodology before implementing it. The EM&V Plan establishes how impacts will be estimat...
AI summary The EM&V Plan uses a difference-in-difference (DID) approach to evaluate the impact of the Customer Energy Management (CEM) platform by comparing usage data between CEM users and non-users. Due to a cyber incident and lack of AMI data, the evaluation period for Year 4 is limited to January to March 2025, and baseline periods are adjusted accordingly.
2.1 Available Data NS Power provided the following data to calculate CEM impacts: - › CEM web user login information: Number of logins by month and by customer from November 2021 to March 2025. - › Monthly electricity consumption for each...
AI summary NS Power provided data on customer energy usage and program participation to calculate CEM impacts. EfficiencyOne program participation data were used to identify confounding effects in the evaluation of CEM savings. This includes data on login activity, electricity consumption, rate codes, weather, and paperless billing.
3 Control Group Selection As part of the CEM Year 2 evaluation, Econoler concluded that performing the DID electricity consumption analysis on CEM users and using non-CEM users as a control group without applying further selection criteria...
AI summary The CEM Year 2 evaluation used a modified DID approach to account for electrification effects by focusing on CEM users already using electrical heating and matching residential customers on the standard rate. For TVP, control groups were defined based on electrical heating in both periods, while commercial rate codes faced limitations in sample size or participation.
3.2 Confounding Effects Confounding effects refer to the CEM evaluation savings that should be attributed to increased participation in EfficiencyOne programs rather than to CEM usage. Econoler calculated the sum of the savings achieved th...
AI summary The text discusses confounding effects in the CEM evaluation, where savings from EfficiencyOne programs may be incorrectly attributed to CEM usage. Econoler calculated EfficiencyOne savings and adjusted the CEM evaluation by subtracting these savings to ensure accurate measurement of CEM impacts.
4.1.1 Energy Usage The two figures below illustrate the energy usage savings achieved by residential rate code customers that are high CEM users (low users exhibit a similar pattern and corresponding graphs are provided in [Appendix](#page...
AI summary The text discusses energy usage savings across different residential and commercial rate codes, highlighting patterns in winter and summer savings, the impact of heat pump adoption, and the statistical significance of savings. It notes variations between high and low CEM users and the influence of factors like operations on commercial energy use.
4.1.4 Alert Impacts Econoler sought to determine if the CEM high and low user groups that subscribe to alerts achieved higher savings than those who do not subscribe to alerts. This analysis was performed for the high bill alert only, the...
AI summary Econoler analyzed the impact of high bill alerts on energy savings for CEM users, finding inconsistent and non-statistically significant results due to a small non-subscribed customer group. The analysis was limited to specific rate codes and showed mixed outcomes.
4.1.5 Load Shift Analysis The EM&V Plan requires a comparative analysis of the annual energy usage load shape be performed to determine if noticeable changes occurred following the introduction of the CEM. Therefore, Econoler calculated th...
AI summary The EM&V Plan requires a comparative analysis of annual energy usage load shapes before and after the introduction of the CEM. Econoler found that the curves for all rate codes were very similar in both periods, and therefore does not recommend using this analysis to draw conclusions about the effect of the CEM on electricity consumption.
102975Comments - SBA
4 passages
July 28, 2026 VIA EMAIL Ms. Crystal Henwood Clerk of the Board Nova Scotia Energy Board 1601 Lower Water Street, 3rd Floor Halifax NS B3J 3 S3 Dear Ms. Henwood: Re: Ml2920 - Nova Scotia Power Inc. - CI C0021839 - IT - Customer Energy Manag...
AI summary The Small Business Advocate (SBA) comments on Econoler's 2025 Evaluation of the Customer Energy Management Platform, noting concerns about limited data due to a cyber security incident and the need to maintain activation levels for commercial customers.
decision on the Year 3 CEM EM& V Report to undertake additional work with 1 M12920 - Exhibit N-1 - Econoler's Evaluation of the Customer Energy Management Platform - Year 4 (the "Report"). 2 Ml2920 - Exhibit N-1- The Report, Page 24, Figur...
AI summary The document discusses the evaluation of the Customer Energy Management (CEM) platform's Year 4 report, highlighting negative energy savings for commercial customers. NSPI cites a cybersecurity event as a barrier to new initiatives, while the SBA emphasizes the importance of engaging commercial customers. Econoler suggests that electrification may have influenced the results despite limitations in the sample size.
been considered (as was the case for the Residential Standard rate code), but the relatively small sample of available CEM users in the Commercial rate codes made this option impractical 7 . The SBA notes that this was the same explanation...
AI summary The SBA questions the reliability of the CEM platform's data, citing limited sample sizes and statistically insignificant results in the Commercial General code. It references Econoler's report and requests NSPI to confirm whether Econoler's findings are accurate and how they should be addressed in future evaluations.
xhibit N-1, Nova Scotia Power Inc. - CI C0021839 IT - Customer Energy Management (CEM) 2024 Evaluation, Measurement and Verification (EM&V) Report, (the "2024 Report"), Page 16, 2nd to last paragraph. & lt;sup>9 M12920 – Exhibit N-1 – The...
AI summary The text references an exhibit from Nova Scotia Power Inc. related to the Customer Energy Management (CEM) 2024 Evaluation, Measurement and Verification (EM&V) Report, specifically citing page 16 and page 25 of the document.
103189Reply Comments - NS Power
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August 12, 2026 Crystal Henwood Clerk of the Board Nova Scotia Energy Board 1601 Lower Water Street, 3rd Floor Halifax, NS B3J 3S3 Re: M12920 – Customer Energy Management (CEM) 2025 Evaluation, Measurement and Verification (EM&V) Report –...
AI summary NS Power submitted a reply to comments on its CEM EM&V Year 4 Report, noting that the CEM portal and My Energy Insights platform have been unavailable since April 2025, leading to data limitations. The report explains how these limitations affected the 2025 CEM EM&V approach and acknowledges constructive engagement from the SBA and CA.
Year 4 Report were intentionally understated. The limitations were discussed in numerous sections of the Report. Specifically, in addition to the quote noted above, the Report outlines the following: - Customers have not been able to acces...
AI summary The report highlights limitations in the Year 4 Report due to a cybersecurity incident in April 2025, which impacted customer access to the CEM portal and the availability of AMI data. Evaluation metrics were only measured up to March 2025, and some service cost efficiency metrics could not be fully assessed for the entire year. The report also estimates unrealized impacts of the CEM program following the incident.
Customer Engagement and Results Both the SBA and the CA provide comments pertaining to customer engagement and results. GEEG states the following: The share of analyzed customers who did not log in during the evaluation period rose year-ov...
AI summary The SBA and CA comment on customer engagement and results, noting low login rates among residential and commercial customers. GEEG highlights that only 14% of residential and 4–5% of commercial customers logged in, suggesting the evaluation may be measuring non-users. NS Power and Econoler argue that the evaluation only includes CEM users in the treatment group, and that the number of activated CEM customers has increased year-over-year.
cluding a relevant question in its next CEM customer survey. Any findings would be reported as qualitative, directional indicators of customer behaviour and would not form part of the EM&V evaluation. GEEG recommends that, until commercial...
AI summary GEEG recommends reporting commercial impact results as inconclusive due to limited sample sizes and commercial engagement, while NS Power and Econoler argue that the results remain useful for understanding customer group impacts and no changes are needed in reporting methods.
Clarification of Evaluation Methodology The SBA states that it is unclear how the statement in the Report that "The evaluation results for high and low users under the Commercial General code and for low users under the Commercial Small Ge...
AI summary The SBA questions the interpretation of statistically significant energy savings in the Commercial General and Commercial Small General rate codes, while GEEG highlights that peak load reductions under Critical Peak Pricing may be driven by pricing signals rather than the CEM platform. The report uses a difference-in-differences approach to control for rate signals in evaluating TVP rates.
Future Evaluations The CA provides the following recommendation with respect to future evaluations: Given the ongoing challenges with AMI data retention and access, we recommend that any future evaluations should be put on hold until data...
AI summary The Consumer Advocate (CA) recommends delaying future evaluations of the CEM platform until customers have full access for at least nine months, ideally a year. NS Power and Econoler support this, suggesting the next EM&V report be filed in 2028 covering the full year of 2027, and an update on CEM restoration be provided in 2027.