Demand Costs

This guide describes how to use the Demand Costs data tab in the Low Emissions Analysis Platform (LEAP) to specify non-fuel costs—including capital, O&M, and administrative expenses—for demand scenarios to support cost-benefit calculations.

• LEAP offers four distinct methods for specifying demand costs: Costs Per Activity, Costs Per Device Sold, Total Costs, and Cost of Saved Energy (CSE).
• The 'Costs Per Activity' method is the default and calculates costs by multiplying the cost per unit of activity by the activity levels. If the activity variable differs from the number of devices, users should enter the annual cost per device multiplied by the number of devices per activity.
• The 'Costs Per Device Sold' method is available for technologies using Stock Analysis or Transport Analysis. It tracks costs for new and replacement devices, which is described as a more accurate but more data-intensive approach than the activity-based method.
• The 'Total Costs' method allows for the entry of a total annual cost at a demand branch, which is useful for administrative or overall program costs. Users can employ the AnnualizedCost function to levelize capital costs for this value.
• The 'Cost of Saved Energy' (CSE) method calculates the incremental cost of saving energy relative to a baseline scenario or Current Accounts. It is intended for comparing demand-side efficiency investments with conventional supply investments and is used when changing the energy intensity of a device. CSE costs are zero in the base year.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (n.d.). Demand Costs. https://cdn.leap.sei.org/help24/Demand/Demand_Cost_Analysis.htm

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Demand Costs. n.d. https://cdn.leap.sei.org/help24/Demand/Demand_Cost_Analysis.htm.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Demand Costs |url=https://cdn.leap.sei.org/help24/Demand/Demand_Cost_Analysis.htm |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitutenddemand, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Demand Costs}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, url = {https://cdn.leap.sei.org/help24/Demand/Demand_Cost_Analysis.htm}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }