ICP Project Development Templates are first of a kind ready-to-use templates that take the time and cost out of developing the key performance period plans required for Certified Investor Ready Energy Efficiency™ projects. Developed in collaboration with stakeholders, these templates have been designed for users to customize the contents and language to fit owner or project specific requirements, and generally based on information already developed for the project.
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ICP requires that at the time of IREE™ Certification these actionable plans are in place, so that building owners and investors can ensure that projects are implemented, maintained, and measured through the performance period of thier projects to make sure they achieve thier energy savings potential. The ICP system provides the plan as part of the underwriting pacakge, but we rely on those taking risk on the savings to ensure that the plans are executed on.

We are pleased to release templates for Operational Performance Verification (targeted commissioning), Operations Maintenance and Monitoring, and Measurement and Verification. 

Operational Performance Verification (OPV) Plan Template: 
The OPV plan can be used directly to describe the targeted commissioning process to support Investor Confidence Project (ICP) compliant projects that use either in-house or third-party commissioning providers. 

​Buildings use nearly 40 percent of all energy in the U.S., so improving their efficiency is key to a clean energy future. Because increasing deal flow in the energy efficiency market has been a challenge, Environmental Defense Funds’ (EDF) Investor Confidence Project (ICP) announced today the launch of its Investor Network to help connect investors in search of quality energy efficiency projects with project developers of buildings in need of capital. Offering investors a common language to compare project risks and savings makes projects simpler, decisions easier, and project performance more reliable.
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“The Investor Confidence Project helps create a pipeline of investor-ready projects to meet growing demand within the building sector” said Andy Darrell, EDF’s Chief of Strategy, Global Energy & Finance. “We are thrilled to see these investors looking for ways to deploy capital into energy efficiency and look forward to helping close the gap between opportunity and a robust marketplace of smart investments.”

Upgrading buildings leads to cleaner air, economic growth, and lower electricity bills

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities today approved a pilot program to fuel private investment in energy efficiency in buildings through Environmental Defense Funds’ (EDF) Investor Confidence Project (ICP). New Jersey is the first state to incorporate ICP best practices and standards into an existing state energy efficiency incentive program.
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EDF’s Investor Confidence Project standardizes the way energy efficiency projects are developed and brought to market, increasing confidence in predicted energy and financial returns that will increase investor confidence and help scale national and global energy efficiency markets. ICP offers a series of protocols that define industry best practices for energy efficiency project development and a credentialing system that includes third-party validation.

“Using smart engineering standards and best practices to help save energy in buildings creates local jobs, cuts pollution and saves New Jerseyans money,” said Mary Barber, EDF Director, New Jersey Clean Energy. “Buildings use nearly 40 percent of all energy in the U.S., so improving their efficiency is key to a clean energy future. Launching this pilot to standardize energy efficiency projects builds on the Garden State’s existing commitment to clean energy and pioneers innovative, cost-effective solutions that serve as a model for other states around the country.”

The New Jersey Clean Energy Program’s pilot will incorporate the Investor Confidence Project’s energy efficiency protocols into the state’s Pay for Performance (P4P) program. The P4P pilot introduces ICP as an alternative way for buildings to meet the pay-for-performance requirements.
One of the goals of the pilot is to assemble data over three years of participation that will provide project developers and the New Jersey Clean Energy Program with new information regarding project performance over an extended period of time; crucial information to ensure that the predicted energy and environmental benefits are achieved and maintained.

As California races towards a clean energy future, not only do we need new aggressive goals for all sectors, but we also need to rethink how we manage distributed energy resources, like rooftop solar and customer-side energy storage. This is particularly true for one such resource, energy efficiency.

Two weeks ago, the California legislature passed a number of clean energy related bills including SB 350 (De León), a bill that sets the state on a path to achieve Governor Brown's ambitious clean energy goals. The governor’s“50/50/50” plan aims to increase electricity from renewable sources to 50 percent, reduce petroleum use by 50 percent, and double building efficiency by 2030.

Most media reports have focused on the bill’s ambition to increase the renewable portfolio standard and energy efficiency goals, and some observers have expressed justified concern about items left on the cutting room floor(the petroleum use reduction target). But there has been little discussion of the bill’s most important provisions – those that address how energy efficiency will be measured and delivered going forward.

Not only does the bill essentially double California's energy efficiency goals, it does so by making a number of crucial changes in how we approach energy efficiency in the state. These changes, if implemented, represent the beginnings of a major paradigm shift for this clean energy resource.

Changes to how California defines and measures energy efficiency

First, SB 350 fundamentally changes the way energy efficiency is measured in California. Traditionally, regulators rely on a series of after-the-fact studies, including regulation which considers energy code and attempts to account for a number of subjective impacts. SB 350 on the other hand, is clear that “energy efficiency savings and demand reduction reported…shall be measured taking into consideration the overall reduction in normalized metered electricity and natural gas consumption.” This removes much of the subjectivity from measuring energy efficiency by taking a more holistic look at electricity and gas-use reductions.

This is a huge shift from current practices. It promises to standardize how energy efficiency is measured based on meter data and evaluate its performance based on straight reductions in energy demand. More importantly, it has the potential to finally put in place a standardized and replicable system for measuring energy efficiency as a source of electricity available to the grid. In doing so, markets can treat energy efficiency as a reliable energy commodity.

The bill also directs the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) “achieve greater energy efficiency in existing residential and nonresidential structures that fall significantly below the current standards in Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations.” In essence, this definition places importance on what results show at the meter, not how a given customer gets there. Further, it defines those results as the difference between the buildings’ baseline use before energy efficiency interventions, and consumption during the performance period of the retrofits or upgrades.

Building on this data driven approach to measuring energy savings, SB 350 puts in place “pay for performance programs” and goes on to direct that, “Incentive payments shall be based on measured results.” These programs will compensate customers who develop and implement energy efficiency plans based on measured results of those plans. This approach is not new. National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and The Utility Reform Network (TURN) proposed a similar program to the CPUC in the form of their pay-for-metered performance pilot. Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) supported the pilot because of its potential to promote comprehensive upgrades while minimizing implementation costs.

SB 350 is not the only bill shaking up energy efficiency

Though it is getting somewhat less attention, the legislature also passed AB 802 (Williams). In addition to its primary goals of implementing statewide benchmarking across the energy industry and providing access to energy data, this bill also moves the state towards meter-based energy efficiency. It does so by directing the CPUC to incorporate meter-based performance into its goals and budgets. In addition, it instructs the California Energy Commission (CEC) to count efficiency starting from a building baseline rather than energy code (which breaks down a major barrier to energy efficiency).

Taken as a whole, these changes – supported by a surprising group of stakeholders including environmental groups, local governments, industry, utilities, and ratepayer advocates – fundamentally shift California’s approach to energy efficiency. As they come into effect, we will move from a programmatic, regulated approach, to markets which treat energy efficiency as a reliable energy resource. Further, we will rely on private capital and innovation to create the business models necessary to achieve Governor Brown’s goals.

When the Governor signs these landmark bills into law, the state will take a major step forward, creating new opportunity for energy efficiency in California and a model for the rest of the nation to follow.

Today, the 14th of September 2015, the Investor Confidence Project Europe released the first of our building Energy Performance Protocols (ICP Protocols) for public comment.

The ICP Europe Protocols are an industry best practice assembly of existing European and National building energy renovation standards, practices, and documentation aligned to create the data necessary to enable underwriting and managing of energy performance risk.

Similar to an appraisal pack in a commercial real estate deal, each defined Protocol creates a regular set of documentation that will help standardise project performance underwriting, leading to better data on performance, and a more efficient marketplace with less duplicative engineering and lower transaction costs.  

These protocols are to be used for investors and owners in order to manage performance risk and streamline the project diligence process, by government agencies to streamline renovation program processes and expedite subsidy disbursement and by developers and ESCOs to streamline project delivery and increase counter-party confidence in the proposed project.

These first drafts released today are for use on Large Tertiary whole-building energy renovation projects that have a project cost over €1 million and for Standard Tertiary whole-building energy renovation projects that have a project cost under €1 million.

The ICP Europe hosts a group of European investors, building portfolio owners and managers, engineers, insurance companies, government agencies and others to advise us on our protocol development. This group is called our Technical Forum and is open for any stakeholder interested in driving greater deal flow in the renovation market to join. Just sign up on the Technical Forum Webpage.

There will be a Technical Forum webinar, lasting 1-1.5 hours, on September 24th at 15:00 CET where ICP Europe Staff will review the draft protocols, discuss their content and the research that went into them and discuss next steps on their delivery.
 
This is your opportunity to contribute and shape the ICP Europe Protocols to your specific market needs so we hope you can attend the webinar and offer your insight.  We will be sending the Technical Forum webinar details before the meeting and look forward to answering any questions you may have. If you would like to take part you must be registered for the Technical Forum to receive the meeting reminder and webinar details. If you have not already done so, please feel free to register for the Technical Forum at this link.

At its Every Building Conference this summer, the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International announced the relaunch of its BOMA Energy Performance (BEPC) toolkit.  BEPC is an industry-vetted, proven process to plan, procure, and implement performance-driven building retrofits that has been used in successful projects around the world. For this reason, BEPC and the Investor Confidence Project (ICP) are a “natural fit.”

ICP, an Environmental Defense Fund initiative designed to unlock investment in energy efficiency, is accelerating the development of a global energy efficiency market by standardizing how projects are developed and energy savings are calculated. Together, BEPC and ICP can be used to execute successful, reliable, investment-grade energy retrofit projects from concept through measurement and verification.

ICP’s Roadmap to Investor Confidence lays out six major steps in the project development cycle: origination, project development, quality assurance, certification, underwriting, contracting, and performance. BEPC includes a flexible framework and supporting toolkit of template documents that can assist building owners, operators, and program managers at each stage of this process. Two key areas where the BEPC toolkit is particularly useful in the ICP project development cycle are:

1. Origination – Service provider selection

Any building owner or operator who has struggled with evaluating vendor pitches knows that selecting a service provider to design and execute a complex engineering project is a daunting challenge. Multi-measure building retrofit projects compound the difficulty, since there is no “apples to apples” comparison in a traditional competitive bid process and a simple low-bid requirement does not apply. For this kind of project, owners must find a true partner – not only one that can expertly handle the design and build portions of the project, but a partner that can also develop and execute the best project for the building and owner’s goals. This will ensure the project performs at or above expectations for the long term. The BEPC toolkit includes a step-by-step procurement and project development process, with templates for RFPs and other procurement documents to select a qualified energy service provider. These documents can easily incorporate ICP requirements around Project Developer Credentialing, Software Providers, standardized documentation to facilitate third party Quality Assurance, and Investor Ready Energy Efficiency Certification™.

1. Project Development – Contracting for success

Developing a contract or agreement for a multi-measure building retrofit project can also be thorny.  Some service providers offer contracts, but these can be missing key protections for the owner, and can be very difficult for non-engineers (i.e., lawyers) to unravel. The BOMA Energy Performance Contract   toolkit includes a number of easy-to-use-or-adapt contracting documents that have been vetted by the real estate industry to reduce risk and protect owners’ interests. The BEPC documents incorporate many of the key features of ICP, including rigorous standards for developing a building’s energy-use baseline, transparent means of adjusting the baseline, and the ability to provide an energy savings guarantee, if desired (or required by investors). Again, BEPC aligns perfectly with the ICP mission to ensure that energy efficiency retrofit projects perform as expected.

ICP and BEPC in Practice
The LA Better Buildings Challenge (LABBC) provides a real-world example of how all of these pieces come together at the program level. Funded by the local utilities, LABBC works as a neutral third party to facilitate development of Investor Ready Energy Efficiency™ projects utilizing ICP and BEPC best practices.

As part of its onboarding process, the LABBC works with property owners to understand their investment criteria, internal capacity to manage and execute projects, existing contractor relationships, and areas of interest and opportunity .  Depending on the scope of the project, the owner’s internal resources, and contractor preferences, LABBC then recommends three firms from its list of prequalified Implementation Partners – each of whom has signed on to the BEPC Best Practices – and facilitates an expedited interview procurement process as described in the BEPC Toolkit. The selected Implementation Partner then conducts a comprehensive, investment-grade audit using an ICP-compliant software tool to facilitate quality assurance and certification by LABBC technical advisors and underwriting by the owner or third party funders. Once the scope of work is finalized, LABBC introduces the BEPC model contract language, including a full contract or contract exhibit to use with existing contract form agreements of the owner, to ensure that whatever agreement is used clearly addresses adjustments to the energy-use baseline, calculation of savings, transparent pricing, and measurement and verification.

ICP and the BEPC team are excited to continue finding ways to bring joint benefits of both programs to the retrofit industry. ICP is represented on the BEPC Advisory Board and the BEPC team and ICP plan to continue collaborating to increase the flow of rigorous, successful building retrofit projects.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) Clean Energy Program has announced a proposed pilot program incorporating the Investor Confidence Project (ICP) system into their Pay for Performance (P4P) commercial and industrial energy efficiency whole building program. As proposed, the pilot program will introduce an alternative approach to accessing the BPU’s project incentives that will be based on Investor Ready Energy EfficiencyTM Certification of participating projects.  The proposed program will also include additional incentives for those programs that participate utilizing ICP. 

The Clean Energy Program has released the draft proposal which details the integration of ICP into the program. Comments and letters regarding the proposal are due by close of business September 1, 2015.  We hope for approval by the Board of Public Utilities at their meeting on October 15, 2015.

This pilot program is an exciting development for ICP. The N.J. Clean Energy Program has developed a voluntary, alternative compliance path for ICP that includes enhanced incentives for those projects that opt in and develop projects consistent with the ICP system. This pilot will provide New Jersey and the nation with important lessons learned about the value of ICP.

For stakeholders who have a national scope or have a presence in New Jersey it will be very helpful for the BPU to hear from you regarding your support for ICP. ICP has drafted a letter of support to the BPU that we hope you’ll sign on to (or better yet submit a letter on your own letterhead directly to the BPU at [email protected] by 9/1/15 with subject heading “Proposed P4P/ICP Pilot). 

To add your company’s name to the letter please send an email indicating your support as soon as possible to Mary Barber, EDF’s New Jersey Director, Clean Energy ([email protected]). who has been working closely with the NJ Clean Energy Program developing this pilot.