Tag Archives: Energy Disclosure

San Francisco Existing Commercial Buildings Energy Performance Ordinance

Leave a reply

Last week San Francisco passed a landmark energy Ordinance requiring owners of commercial buildings to perform energy benchmarking.   The San Francisco Existing Commercial Buildings Energy Performance Ordinance requires annual bench marking and energy audits every five years. 

Annual energy benchmarking is defined as follows:

(a)   Annual Energy Benchmark Summary Reporting. The owner of every non-residential building in the City shall annually file with the Department of the Environment an Annual Energy Benchmark Summary report (“AEBS”) for each covered building using ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager and according to the schedule set forth in Section 2004 of this Chapter. The AEBS shall be based on assessment in Portfolio Manager of the entire non-residential building and related facilities, and must use 12 continuous months of data ending no earlier than two months prior to submittal to the Department of the Environment.

Compliance with the energy benchmarking is staggered based on the size of the building, but the first group of buildings, non-residential buildings over 50,000 s.f., is due in April of 2011.  

The energy audits requirement is also staggered over 5 years, as the population of qualifying energy engineers could not otherwise meet the demand.    The energy audits are required to be done to ASHRAE Level II Standards.   The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-conditioning Engineers Inc. (ASHRAE) maintains well established energy audit standards.  

 Energy Efficiency Auditor Qualifications

The San Francisco Existing Commercial Buildings Energy Performance Ordinance provides clear criteria for the qualifications of the energy engineer / energy auditor:

(c) Energy Efficiency Auditor Qualifications. An energy professional performing or supervising energy efficiency audits must hold one of the following qualifications:

(1) Licensed Professional Engineer and one of the following:

(A) At least 2 years experience performing energy efficiency audits or commissioning of existing buildings; or

(B) ASHRAE Commissioning Process Management Professional Certification; or

(C) Similar qualifications in energy efficiency analysis or commissioning.

(2) Association of Energy Engineers Certified Energy Manager (CEM);

(3) At least 10 years experience as a building operating engineer, or at least 5 years experience as a chief operating engineer and one of the following:

(A) BOC International Building Operator Certification; or

(B) International Union of Operating Engineers Certified Energy Specialist; or

(4) Equivalent professional qualifications to manage, maintain, or evaluate systems, as well as specialized training in energy efficiency audits and maintenance of systems, as determined by the Director.

By requiring serious credentials the San Francisco Existing Commercial Buildings Energy Performance Ordinance will ultimately make the data generated more useful to building owners.

The benchmarking piece of the law will dovetail nicely with California law AB 1103, which requires building owners to disclose their Energy Star Ratings at during sale, lease, or financing transactions.  

Upcoming ASTM E2797-2011 BEPA (Building Energy Performance Assessment) Standard

Leave a reply

The draft ASTM E2797-2011 BEPA (Building Energy Performance Assessment) Standard will provide another method to assess and disclose the energy efficiency of commercial buildings.  The standard is expected to be published in 2011, though no date has been specified.

BEPA was created in an effort to standardize the process of assessing the energy efficiency of a building for the purposes of pre-transaction disclosure.  Building purchasers will want to know the building’s energy consumption, and lenders will want to understand the building’s operating costs. 

BEPAs were designed to be conducted in concurrence with a Phase I ESA or PCA; however, BEPA buyers need to be aware that the personnel used for the site inspection during a Phase I or PCA may not be trained appropriately to conduct the BEPA.  The inspector for BEPA should be a mechanical or other engineer, Certified Energy Manager (CEM), LEED AP or other professional with training in building and energy systems.

More states are requiring energy efficiency disclosure of commercial buildings.  As this trend continues, more building owners, purchasers and commercial real estate professionals are recognizing the value of energy assessments not just because of these regulatory requirements, but because energy efficiency initiatives really work.  In addition to greater marketability of a building, capital investments into energy efficient system upgrades will yield substantial return on investment.

According to Tony Liou, President of Partner Energy, the EPA’s Energy Star program is currently the most commonly used energy disclosure and benchmarking tool; however, Partner Energy structures each assessment according to the client’s specifications and the most appropriate method, whether the Energy Star program, ASHRAE audits, or the upcoming BEPA standard.

Partner Energy specializes in an array of energy services including audits, modeling and benchmarking.

Energy Audits

Leave a reply

Energy Audits should be a standard part of building due diligence.  When you buy a car you know its fuel effiency, why not understand the same about the commercial building that you are buying?    Commercial building energy efficency can vary widely.   Two building of similar age and construction often vary as much as $1.00 per square foot per year in energy costs. 

Of course, the cost of energy is in the operating expense, so why pay $1,000 to $3,000 for an energy audit?   What you cannot see in the operating expenses is the opportunity to reduce.   Often a poorly preforming building can be brought in-line with its peer buildings for a minimal investment and these savings contribute directly to the building’s Net Operating Income.

In California there is another reason to do it:  the results of a basic energy audits will be a required disclosure item duirng leese, sale, and financing transacitons in 2010 for non-residentail buildings per AB 1103.    AB 1103 requires that non-commercial buildings are enrolled in EPA’s portfolio manager program and that the 1 to 100 rating given by EPA Portfolio Manager is given to the prespective tenant, buyer, or lender.