National Standard Practice Manual^TM (NSPM)

The National Standard Practice Manual^TM for Benefit-Cost Analysis of Distributed Energy Resources provides a comprehensive framework for cost-effectiveness assessment of DERs. The manual offers a set of policy-neutral, non-biased, and economically-sound principles, concepts, and methodologies to support single- and multi-DER benefit-cost analysis (BCA) for: energy efficiency (EE), demand response (DR), distributed generation (DG), distributed storage (DS), and (building and vehicle) electrification. It is intended for use by jurisdictions to help inform which resources to acquire to meet their specific policy goals and objectives.

• Download the NSPM Summary 
• Download the most recent Overview Presentation of NSPM
• View Webinars and Events
• See companion guidance document to the NSPM, the Methods, Tools and Resources handbook
• BCA training using the NSPM is available here.

The NSPM is a product of the National Energy Screening Project (NESP^TM). Development of the manual was guided by an Advisory Group and coordinated by E4TheFuture. E4TheFuture, in coordination with other funders, helps to provide technical support to states that implement or apply the manual.

The 2020 NSPM for DERs incorporates and expands upon the 2017 National Standard Practice Manual for Assessing Cost-Effectiveness of Energy Efficiency Resources (NSPM for EE).

Questions? Contact NSPM@nationalenergyscreeningproject.org.

*Repeat NSPM downloaders: You may bypass the gate by bookmarking the download page. This should enable quicker access to the manual when you revisit this site.