Project Experts
Jillian Mallory Project Director
Erinn Meloche Project Manager and Program Lead
Enora Loaec Project Manager
Jean-Francois Bergeron Technical Lead
Independent Review and Data-Driven Insights Supporting Nova Scotia’s DSM Portfolio
- Client
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Region
- North America (USA-Canada)
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Service
- Portfolio Planning and Design
- Program Evaluation
- Metering Studies and Energy Data Insights
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Countries
Canada
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Provinces
Nova Scotia
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Sector
- Utilities
As governments and utilities scale up energy efficiency to meet climate and capacity challenges, measuring impact becomes as critical as ambition. For DSM program administrators, demonstrating real, verified results is essential — not only to meet regulatory requirements, but to maintain public trust in ratepayer and government-funded demand-side management (DSM) programs.
EfficiencyOne manages one of Canada’s most comprehensive DSM portfolios, spanning residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. Since 2015, Econoler has played a central role in ensuring that EfficiencyOne’s results are independently validated, defensible, and continuously improving.
Independent Evaluation in Nova Scotia
Within Nova Scotia’s regulatory and reporting environment, Econoler’s independent evaluation results are used to:
- Validate energy and capacity savings claims
- Quantify avoided greenhouse gas emissions
- Demonstrate value for money
- Support transparent regulatory oversight
Econoler’s work directly informs regulatory decisions and the credibility of DSM investments across the province.
With a relatively smaller population and market size in Nova Scotia, evaluation resources must be deployed strategically to maximize value. We tailored our evaluation approaches to focus on the most impactful studies — balancing methodological rigour with effectiveness — while maintaining the high standards required in a regulatory setting.
Mandate
Independently evaluate EfficiencyOne’s DSM portfolio on an annual basis.
A Decade of Trusted Energy Efficiency Evaluation with EfficiencyOne
Econoler’s mandate is to independently evaluate EfficiencyOne’s DSM portfolio on an annual basis, quantifying:
- Verified energy savings
- Capacity impacts
- Avoided greenhouse gas emissions
Beyond validating results, the mandate emphasizes learning and improvement. Econoler’s findings and recommendations are used by EfficiencyOne to refine program design, respond to market changes, and strengthen portfolio performance over time.
A Rigorous, Adaptive Evaluation Framework
Econoler leads the mandate as independent evaluator, delivering a structured and adaptive evaluation approach that includes:
- Development of a multi-year strategic evaluation framework aligned with EfficiencyOne’s DSM Plan
- Annual evaluation plans reflecting program changes and emerging priorities
- Application of leading EM&V best practices, including robust sampling and analytical methods
- Market research on energy behaviours, free-ridership, spillover, and customer satisfaction
- Process evaluations to assess program delivery, customer experience, and opportunities for improvement
- Market evaluations in rapidly evolving areas such as lighting, heat pumps, and new construction
- Evaluation of pilot programs and emerging initiatives, including demand response and market transformation
- Regulatory support, including responses to intervenor requests and formal evidentiary submissions
As part of the mandate, Econoler also provides program advisory support, including the development of logic models for all programs and a comprehensive Technical Reference Manual defining savings assumptions, baselines, and effective useful lives of energy efficiency measures.
Trusted Results and Better Decisions
Key benefits of this project include:
- Regulatory certainty: All savings claims have been accepted annually by the Nova Scotia energy regulator.
- Stronger portfolio performance: Evaluation findings have helped identify opportunities to improve program uptake, savings realization, and customer experience.
- Support for innovation: Evaluation provided information to validate new program concepts, such as demand response, and to scale them successfully.
- Improved decision-making: Annual insights support portfolio planning and program decisions.
Building on a Decade of Credibility
As Nova Scotia continues to advance its energy transition, independent, data-driven evaluation remains essential. Econoler’s long-standing partnership with EfficiencyOne demonstrates how rigorous evaluation can build trust and maximize the impact of DSM investments.
Econoler will continue as EfficiencyOne’s independent evaluator for the 2026 program year, supporting the next phase of DSM program evolution.