Pennsylvania's market transformation in performance contracting demonstrates the Best Practices that ESC recommends for all states: state energy office leadership, streamlined processes with pre-qualified providers and model contract documents, technical assistance to end-users, a self-funding strategy to support the program to name a few. With the state chapter, Pennsylvania will check off the last Best Practice recommended for state performance contracting programs.  Pennsylvania is quickly climbing up in ESC's Race to the Top - a state to state comparison of performance contracting activity per capita.

The Arizona Energy Office (AEO) now mandates that all performance contracting projects use ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager.  Offered jointly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy, ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is an online interactive energy management tool that enables users to track and assess energy and water use of a single building, or across an entire portfolio of buildings, while rating building performance compared to similar buildings nationwide.  "Our goal is to standardize the data and get all state buildings ENERGY STAR benchmarked," said Jim Westberg, AEO Energy Program Administrator who manages the performance contracting program.  "If a building is performing poorly, we can focus more resources on it and then track its improvement through annual ratings.  If a building becomes a high performer it can be ENERGY STAR certified and recognized by EPA."  AEO infused ARRA funds into this effort in support of its performance contracting program.  Already, the Department of Administration is wrapping up benchmarking its 51 buildings, working with its selected ESCO to identify and prioritize projects for an anticipated $12.5 million performance contracting project. 

 

ESCOs are very familiar with Portfolio Manager which can typically interface easily with an ESCO's proprietary tools.  ESCOs say it helps "shine a flashlight" on buildings during the audit process to identify buildings performing poorly that are good candidates for retrofits, while the rating helps identify how far to go.  As one ESCO representative put it, "if you can't measure it, it's hard to understand how to improve."  The rating is useful as a jumping off point to help the ESCO focus its engineering expertise to advance the ball and get the optimum level of performance.  Portfolio Manager also tracks greenhouse gases related to consumption to estimate the carbon footprint of buildings, applies a weather correction to normalize the data from year to year, and has a built-in financial tool to track energy costs and help set investment priorities. 

State and local governments have many options to spend American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds.  Charged with spending the money wisely to create jobs and save energy, the choice seems clear when energy savings performance contracting is an option. 

 

Compare what $250,000 in ARRA funds can do in this "back of the envelope" example: 

ESC is delighted to host a webinar bringing together representatives from three key organizations who will provide national insight on Energy Savings Performance Contracting (ESPC).  The panelists will share their perspectives on the next generation of ESPC, ARRA funding deployment to date, the difference between spending and leveraging funds and many other topics that will be discussed.  Speakers include Dale Hahs, President of the Board of Directors, Energy Services Coalition (ESC); David Terry, Executive Director, National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO); and Donald Gilligan, President, National Association of Energy Service Companies (NAESCO).  Join us on Friday, June 4th, 1:00 EST.