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Public Advocates Office flags growth in non‑cost‑effective program budgets, urges performance standards
Summary
The Public Advocates Office presented analysis showing a large increase in budgets for programs not meeting cost-effectiveness thresholds and urged consistent performance standards and reconsideration of ratepayer funding for repeatedly failing programs.
Shelley Leiser, program manager in the Public Advocates Office, told the committee that a subset of ratepayer-funded programs has grown in authorized budget despite not demonstrating cost-effectiveness. Leiser showed a chart she said indicates those program budgets rose from roughly $27,000,000 in 2021 to about $557,000,000 in 2027 and recommended that projected benefits be compared with quantifiable results before authorizing continued ratepayer funding.
"Programs funded by ratepayers should produce greater ratepayer benefits than costs," Leiser said. She recommended applying consistent performance standards to ratepayer-funded programs, comparing projected benefits to measurable results, better coordination across demand-side programs to avoid duplication and considering phasing out or moving programs that repeatedly fail to produce measurable benefits to other funding sources.
Her presentation prompted panel discussion about whether TRC’s inclusion of participant costs appropriately penalizes high-efficiency or equity-focused measures and whether alternate metrics or portfolio-level applications would better capture total system benefits and non-energy outcomes such as workforce development and health.
