N-1Annual Report - Year 4
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CEM EM&V Year 3 NSEB Direction The Board provided the following direction its Decision on the Year 3 CEM EM&V Report proceeding (M12251): The Board finds that enhancing the CEM and My Energy Insights with features specifically designed for...
AI summary The Nova Scotia Energy Board directed NS Power to enhance the Customer Energy Management (CEM) platform with features for commercial rate classes and to continue reporting on initiatives to boost participation. The Board also emphasized the use of EOne data to address confounding factors and requested a discussion on the practical significance of findings in the Year 4 EM&V Report. NS Power has been unable to implement initiatives due to platform unavailability since April 2025.
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.
Nova Scotia Power (NS Power) began onboarding customers to the Customer Energy Management (CEM) platform in November 2021. The CEM is an online tool that serves to analyze and visualize the energy consumption of each customer to offer cust...
AI summary Nova Scotia Power (NS Power) introduced the Customer Energy Management (CEM) platform in November 2021, targeting TVP pilot participants and expanding to other customer segments by June 2022. The platform helps customers analyze and visualize energy usage, provide energy-saving tips, and promote energy efficiency.
Overall, 61% of CEM eligible customers have an activated CEM account. - › As of March 2025, a total of 301,690 customers (278,550 residential and 23,140 commercial) had activated CEM accounts, representing an increase of 13,187 (11,812 res...
AI summary As of March 2025, 61% of CEM-eligible customers have activated CEM accounts, showing an increase from December 2024. Residential TOD and TVP customers use CEM more frequently, while log-in rates are significantly lower for commercial customers.
The impact evaluation on a subset of electrically heated customers served to capture savings attributable to the CEM platform. - › High users under the Residential Standard and Residential TOD rate codes achieved statistically significant...
AI summary The impact evaluation on a subset of electrically heated customers shows statistically significant energy and load savings for some residential users under specific rate codes, particularly those on the CPP rate code. However, not all customer subsets showed significant savings, and some results were not statistically significant, indicating the need for further analysis.
Savings due to high bill alerts were generally not statistically significant. › The comparison of energy and bill savings for high and low users that subscribed to high bill alerts compared to those that did not subscribe generally did not...
AI summary Savings from high bill alerts were not statistically significant except for March 2025 residential users. Paperless billing adoption increased significantly among CEM-eligible customers, especially those who activated and used CEM.
INTRODUCTION Nova Scotia Power (NS Power) started onboarding customers to the Customer Energy Management (CEM) platform in November 2021. The CEM is an online tool that serves to analyze and visualize the energy consumption of each custome...
AI summary Nova Scotia Power (NS Power) introduced the Customer Energy Management (CEM) platform in November 2021 to help customers understand and reduce their energy consumption. The CEM platform provides personalized energy-saving tips and visualizes energy usage patterns. It was initially offered to Time-Varying Pricing (TVP) pilot participants and later expanded to other customers with advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meters.
1.1 CEM Login Data Econoler analyzed the CEM login data with the objective of understanding the extent to which the CEM was used and the evolution of usage throughout the three-month evaluation period. It should be noted that the login dat...
AI summary Econoler analyzed CEM login data to assess usage trends among residential and commercial customers from January to March 2025. The analysis excluded customers with inconsistent data and showed a slight decline in logins, particularly for residential customers on CPP and TOU rates. Tables and figures summarize login data and account activation rates for 2024 and 2025.
\ \ For 2024, the average for January to March is presented first, followed by the annual average in brackets. Final Report As shown in the table above, residential TVP participants tend to use the CEM the most. The table also indicates a...
AI summary The report highlights that residential TVP participants are the most active users of the Customer Energy Management (CEM) system. As of March 2025, 60% of eligible residential customers have activated CEM, with a notable increase in activation rates. However, the percentage of customers who did not log in significantly increased in 2025 compared to 2024, and only a small percentage logged in more than once.
Table 4: CEM Usage Level Thresholds per Rate Code, Based on MDef3 Metric Rate Code Low CEM User Threshold High CEM User Threshold Residential Standard ≥1 ≥2 Residential TOD ≥1 ≥2 Residential CPP and TOU ≥1 ≥3 Small General and General ≥1 ≥...
AI summary Table 4 outlines CEM usage level thresholds for different rate codes based on MDef3 login data. Econoler analyzed the data and determined thresholds, with high CEM users defined as those with ≥2 logins for most rate codes, except for Residential CPP and TOU, where the threshold is ≥3.
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.
2.2 User Definitions CEM users for a given month are customers that meet the low or high CEM usage threshold as described in Subsection 1.2 above; those customers constitute the treatment group. Non-users constitute the pool of potential c...
AI summary The document defines CEM users and non-users for a given month, noting that non-users are CEM-eligible customers who have not activated their portal. For Residential TVP customers, the control group is defined by login activity rather than portal activation due to the pilot program's structure.
2.3 Comparison of CEM and TVP Evaluation Methodologies The methodology used for the CEM evaluation differs from that used for the TVP evaluation, and savings measured for the CEM and TVP are not cumulative. The non-cumulative nature of the...
AI summary The evaluation methodologies for CEM and TVP differ, particularly in the composition of treatment and control groups and the reference periods used. Savings from CEM and TVP are not cumulative, especially for residential customers. While there may be some overlap in savings, the methodologies make it difficult to quantify this overlap, and thus the savings should not be combined.
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.
[Table 5](#page-27-1) lists the criteria applied to each rate code to identify customers that used electrical systems, and these criteria are the same as those used in previous evaluations. Rate Code Criteria for Including Customers in the...
AI summary Table 5 outlines the criteria for including customers in the analysis based on rate codes. It specifies that residential customers in the highest third of electricity consumption and those using electrical space heating are included, while some rate codes have no further criteria due to small sample sizes or lack of eligible customers.
Table 6: Average Number of Customers Included in Impact Analysis Rate Code Average Monthly Number of Customers Included in the Analysis Control Low High Residential Standard 10,076 7,455 4,072 Residential TOD 1,279 542 391 Residential CPP...
AI summary Table 6 presents the average number of customers included in the impact analysis for various rate codes, including Residential Standard, Residential TOD, Residential CPP, and others. The table also notes that the maximum value for the similarity metric, based on mean absolute deviation between monthly consumption of control and treatment customers, was set at 0.5.
4.1 Customer Load and Energy Usage This subsection summarizes customer load and energy usage savings per customer for residential and commercial rate codes for the period of January to March 2025. [Table 7](#page-30-2) and [Table 8](#page-...
AI summary This subsection summarizes customer load and energy usage savings for residential and commercial rate codes from January to March 2025. Tables provide load savings for morning and evening peaks and commercial peak demand charge savings. Non-statistically significant values are highlighted in grey, indicating that CEM effects cannot be distinguished from externalities and random variations.
Table 7: Summary of Customer Load and Energy Usage Savings - Residential Rate Code CEM Usage Post Period Energy Usage Savings (kWh) Average Load Savings During Morning Peak (kW) Average Load Savings During Evening Peak (kW) Post Period Bil...
AI summary The table highlights residential energy usage and load savings under various rate codes. High users on Residential Standard and TOD achieved significant energy savings, with TOD showing the greatest reductions. TVP rates showed significant load savings during peak times, especially for CPP customers, who shifted usage away from peak periods despite non-significant overall energy savings.
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.
4.1.2 Load Savings During Peak Periods Load savings during peak periods are generally close to zero on average over the winter peak period and a mix of statistically significant and non-significant results. [Figure](#page-37-1) 14 and [Fig...
AI summary Load savings during peak periods are generally close to zero for residential and commercial customers, with mixed statistical significance. For example, TOU high users showed significant savings of nearly 1 kW during morning and evening peaks, while Commercial General customers showed minimal savings within confidence intervals.
4.1.3 Billing Impacts For residential customers, billing impacts are generally positive when energy usage savings are positive. For Residential Standard rate and Commercial Small General customers, the bill impacts follow the same pattern...
AI summary The section discusses billing impacts for residential and commercial customers, noting that positive energy usage savings lead to positive bill impacts. For customers on non-Standard rate codes, peak period load affects bill impacts, with CPP high users showing significant savings even with non-significant energy usage savings.
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.
4.2.2 Paperless Billing To determine the impact of the CEM on the uptake of paperless billing, Econoler compared the percentage of customers that used paperless billing in the baseline period and then in the post period. Given that paperle...
AI summary The analysis evaluates the impact of the Customer Energy Management (CEM) program on paperless billing uptake by comparing baseline and post periods. Econoler used subscription data from 2025 and calculated expected uptake based on linear annual increases, with different timeframes for TVP participants and others.
Overall, paperless billing adoption increased across all rate codes, with the highest uptake observed among residential TVP customers. Indeed, Residential CPP and TOU customers showed the strongest performance, reaching 90.3% and 87.0% ado...
AI summary The text discusses the increase in paperless billing adoption among residential customers, particularly those on TVP rates, and highlights differences in uptake based on CEM activation and usage. It also mentions projections assuming linear trends for future adoption rates.
Overall, 61% of CEM eligible customers have an activated CEM account. - › As of March 2025, a total of 301,690 customers (278,550 residential and 23,140 commercial) had activated CEM accounts, representing an increase of 13,187 (11,812 res...
AI summary As of March 2025, 61% of CEM eligible customers have activated CEM accounts, with a notable increase from December 2024. Residential TOD and TVP rate code customers use CEM more frequently, while login rates vary significantly across customer segments, with some groups showing high non-login rates during the evaluation period.
The impact evaluation on a subset of electrically heated customers served to capture savings attributable to the CEM platform. - › High users under the Residential Standard and Residential TOD rate codes achieved statistically significant...
AI summary The evaluation of the CEM platform on electrically heated customers showed significant energy and load savings for certain residential rate codes, particularly under CPP and TOD. While some savings were statistically significant, others were not, indicating that external factors may have influenced the results.
Effective January 1, 2025 Domestic Rate Codes 02 and 03 Customer charge ($/month) 19.17 Energy charge (₵/kWh) 16.931 TOD Rate Code 05 and 06 Customer charge ($/month) 19.17 Energy charge (₵/kWh) Winter period (December to February) 7:00 am...
AI summary The text outlines various domestic and commercial rate codes effective January 1, 2025, including customer charges and energy charges for different time-of-day and critical peak pricing plans. These tariffs reflect varying rates based on usage periods and customer segments.
Figure 30: Monthly Energy Usage Savings, Residential Standard – High Users Figure 31: Monthly Energy Usage Savings, Residential Standard – Low Users Figure 32: Monthly Bill Savings, Residential Standard – High Users Figure 34: Monthly Ener...
AI summary The text presents a series of figures illustrating monthly energy usage and bill savings for residential customers under different programs, including standard, TOD (Time-of-Day), and CPP (Critical Peak Pricing) programs, categorized by high and low users. The figures include savings data with 90% confidence intervals.