ESC Best Practices
The Energy Services Coalition (ESC) has developed a set of best
practices and recommends that States consider these in developing and
implementing a statewide Energy Savings Performance Contracting (ESPC)
program. Following is a brief description of each practice or approach:
- State Enabling Legislation. Codify best practices and
eliminate procurement/contracting barriers for state & local
governments. The Coalition’s website will provide examples and
different types of legislation that are required to provide
legislative authority for an ESPC program. Explanations will be
provided as to why particular provisions are essential for clear
authorization of ESPC requirements. Acknowledgement that each state
and territory is different and therefore the parochial needs of each
must prevail.
- Strong Legislative and Gubernatorial Support. The
legislature and governor have the power to set agenda priorities and
use their offices to stimulate public debate about important state
issues. A governor’s unique position affords useful venues, such as
the role in the budget, communications, and executive branch policy
agendas. It is essential for both governors and legislators to
establish awareness within state government of ESPC as a means to
upgrade facilities and achieve energy efficiency with no up-front
costs – driving economic development while attaining clean air
goals.
- Consensus. Consensus support among state decision-makers
in the legal, procurement, and finance areas will smooth the way for
ESPC implementation.
- ESC State Chapter or Similar Stakeholder Group. ESC
provides its State Chapters with many resources to facilitate energy
savings performance contracting projects, energy efficiency
improvements, and building upgrades including:
- Education and Outreach Vehicle
- Peer to Peer Information Exchange
- Technical Assistance
- Programmatic and Consensus Support
- ESPC Best Practices
- Model RFP, Contracts, and other Documents
- State Program Administrator. An individual at the state
level who will serve as the ESPC program promoter, information
provider and trusted resource for all parties. The State Program
Administrator should also provide oversight on construction issues
and measurement and verification of the ESPC projects. ESC can
provide best practices for the role of the administrator along with
necessary attributes for hiring and training a qualified
administrator.
- Program Processes. ESC is developing a guidebook to all
the necessary steps in implementing a statewide ESPC program – the
how to, when to, and what’s next.
- Pre-approved Contract Instruments. Obtain state attorney
pre-approval of model contracts (audit contract, performance
contracts, and financing agreements) in order to alleviate the need
for attorney review of contracts for each project. The pre-approval
process substantially changes the viewpoint of facility improvements
as a time consuming and burdensome process.
- Pre-approved Providers. One competitive RFP issued at the
state level for energy service companies relieves individual public
entities of the task of issuing a solicitation, reviewing bids, and
selecting an energy services company (ESCO) on a one-time each-time
basis. The public entity requiring a facility improvement can
completely by-pass this time consuming process by selecting from a
list of state pre-approved ESCOs. Note: procurement codes differ
from state-to-state; therefore a review of each individual state’s
procurement regulations must be made to insure legislative
compliance before implementing this step.
- Tracking Project Implementation Progress. Establishing
simple tracking guidelines for projects and the program will allow
states to boast of their newfound success, and demonstrate
measurable results to the public.
- Encouragement and promotion of programmatic success. The
role of the states can be leader / cheerleader that may precipitate
in the growth of energy savings performance contracting as a
mechanism for commercial and industrial business segments to
understand the value and applicability of this important model.
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