The costs incurred by the utility to achieve the capacity and energy savings from the Demand-Side Management Program. Costs incurred by customers or third parties are to be excluded. The costs are to be reported in thousands of dollars (nominal) in the year in which they are incurred, regardless of when the savings occur. The utility costs are all the annual expenses (labor, administrative, equipment, incentives, marketing, monitoring and evaluation, and other incurred by the utility for operation of the DSM Program), regardless of whether the costs are expensed or capitalized. Lump sum capital costs (typically accrued over several years prior to start up) are not to be reported. Program costs associated with strategic load growth activities are also to be excluded.

This definition is in context to Energy. See more contextual defintions for Demand-side Management Costs.