Building performance standards can deliver large energy and emissions savings but will only be successful if under-resourced buildings can comply. Utility programs are essential to making BPS policies effective and equitable.
Buildings are a significant source of climate pollution, accounting for 31% of U.S. emissions in 2022. To address energy use and emissions in existing buildings, several jurisdictions have established building performance standard (BPS) policies that require large buildings to meet increasingly stringent energy or emissions targets over time. BPS policies have been adopted by four states (Colorado, Maryland, Oregon, and Washington), the District of Columbia, and 12 localities.
BPS policies are projected to significantly reduce energy use and emissions while delivering financial and health benefits to building owners and occupants. However, under-resourced buildings may face financial and technical barriers to compliance.
Utility programs can offer a crucial source of technical and financial support for under-resourced buildings to undertake retrofits necessary for BPS compliance. With strong customer relationships and numerous incentives, utilities are uniquely positioned to help jurisdictions implement BPS effectively.
Read the White Paper A new white paper from ACEEE examines the array of utility programs that can support jurisdictions in adopting BPS policies and ensuring under-resourced buildings can comply. With BPS policies in effect in many jurisdictions and more jurisdictions committed to adopting them, now is the time for utilities and regulators to consider program options and put in place frameworks to credit utilities for their support.
How utility programs can support BPS adoption and compliance:
- Technical assistance and education to cities and states: For example, Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) and nonprofit partners assist jurisdictions in its Illinois territory with benchmarking and BPS adoption. The utility supports jurisdictions in developing a list of covered buildings and helping building owners submit benchmarking data, which is used to establish baseline energy usage and to develop targets for energy reduction. ComEd and its partners also assist in BPS policy development, including reviewing policy language and answering questions from city staff. Given that many jurisdictions have limited staff capacity, utilities can offer an important source of energy expertise and resources.
- Providing building energy data: Regulators should develop standardized processes for utilities to share aggregated whole-building data for multi-tenant buildings with provisions that protect customer privacy, and utilities should implement these practices. The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners has recommended this.
- Energy efficiency incentives and operations and maintenance programs: Utilities already offer several types of programs that can help buildings work toward BPS targets, such as measure-based energy efficiency incentives that cover a single energy end use, like HVAC equipment upgrades, and operations and maintenance programs that target operational changes and scale with energy saved. Four Washington utilities (Puget Sound Energy, Seattle City Light, Snohomish County Public Utility District, and Pacific Power) run a type of strategic energy management (SEM) program called Accelerators, designed to support building owners with BPS compliance directly. While traditional SEM programs include training and operational changes to unlock energy savings over multiple years, the Accelerators are four-month programs that target behavioral and operational savings toward BPS requirements. Through offering tailored assistance, such as helping buildings establish an energy team and training them on savings measures, and offering performance incentives for energy saved, these programs help building owners reach BPS targets while helping to reduce the cost.
- Connecting under-resourced buildings with other financing sources: Utilities can collaborate with public agencies and private investors to help connect under-resourced buildings to financing sources that complement utility program offerings. For example, in Maryland, the Montgomery County Green Bank offers financial assistance to buildings to comply with the county BPS, including covering the costs of benchmarking and energy audits and financing energy upgrades.
As the success of long-standing utility programs, such as efficient lighting, has led to diminishing marginal savings in those program areas, BPS support efforts can unlock new savings opportunities to help utilities meet their targets.
It is important that regulators develop frameworks that enable utilities to claim savings from their efforts to support BPS, including providing guidelines for establishing a baseline for savings evaluation and adapting evaluation methods to the BPS program context. The report outlines a potential attribution approach for BPS-related savings that utilities and regulators can adapt to their state and program contexts.
BPS policies have the potential to significantly reduce energy use and emissions in existing buildings, and utilities are key partners in realizing that potential. Utilities and regulators should enable targeted support toward under-resourced buildings to reduce financial barriers to BPS compliance, maximize the impact of policies, and ensure equitable distribution of benefits to low- and moderate-income residents. In collaboration, utilities, regulators, and policymakers can advance progress toward building decarbonization goals.
