Building Owners Asked to Brainstorm Energy Efficiency Ideas

November 27, 2012 by Linda Hardesty

Seattle City Light is looking for three commercial office buildings to test an energy conservation concept known as “pay-for-performance” in a three-year pilot program. The utility has issued an RFP for the pilot that encourages innovation and tailored energy efficiency approaches that will be the most effective for the particular business.

City Light will pay participants in the pilot program 3 cents for every kilowatt-hour of energy savings they achieve each year.

Building owners can combine capital, operations and maintenance, and behavioral change activities in their responses. The utility will be reviewing the modeling tools used by customers or their partners to estimate energy savings. Customer participants will be responsible for documenting their energy-saving actions and reporting on a monthly basis with a detailed annual report summarizing key initiatives and results.

In its traditional energy conservation programs, the utility makes a one-time payment up front for expected energy savings using prescribed energy efficiency enhancements.

As part of its existing energy efficiency incentive program, Seattle City Light still has $5 million available to help companies that want to reduce their electricity consumption with efficiency projects they install this year. Seattle City Light has energy efficiency incentives for large and small businesses. For medium to large projects, incentives average $22,000.

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