Energy Efficiency in Buildings
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Box 7.7
SuperESCO for Federal (Central Government) Facilities Energy Efficiency in the United States To accelerate the contracting process for its agencies, the U.S. federal government developed a system in which an ESCO is competitively selected, based on its qualifications and capacity to provide an energy savings project for federal (central government) facilities, to execute an umbrella EPC. The selected firm then is required to contact the Department of Energy contracting officer before submitting initial proposals to agencies. Upon approval, “delivery orders” or “task orders” under the umbrella EPC can be issued. The Department of Energy established this process to make EPCs a more practical and streamlined tool for agencies to use. Additionally, the structure of this process would allow the primary ESCO with the umbrella EPC to act as a SuperESCO to subcontract to smaller ESCOs with lesser credentials to gain entry into the market, while shielding the federal government from the risks of working with these smaller ESCOs. Implementation of such contracts is under strict supervision, with energy savings verified and guaranteed. In the United States the payment to ESCOs must be less than the energy cost savings. These Indefinite Quantity Contracts are usually extended or reprocured each three to five years. Under the SuperESCO model, it is important to ensure open and transparent competition during the public procurement process. Since the umbrella contract is awarded to one ESCO that will be responsible for implementing multiple “delivery orders” or “task orders” for various agencies without rebidding, the capacity and qualifications of all bidders of the umbrella contract should be carefully evaluated before the final contract is awarded. If an unqualified ESCO was ultimately selected, the quality of all energy efficiency project implementations could be severely compromised, resulting in time delay and financial loss. Source: Singh et al. 2010.
energy saving measures. This utility has a performance contract with the government. It organizes tenders for energy savings projects and buys energy savings at the lowest cost per unit of energy savings (see also box 6.8 in chapter 6).
Building Elements and Code Compliance While at the design level building code compliance has improved, especially in cold and severe-cold zones, improvements are still advisable to