EPA Helps States, Utilities Reap Greater Energy Savings

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced a new pilot program to further improve energy efficiency in commercial buildings across several states and utilities.

The goal of the Building Performance with Energy Star program is to help utilities and state energy-efficiency programs achieve greater energy savings and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by targeting whole building energy improvements with their business customers.

Pilot program partners are Com Ed, MidAmerican, National Grid, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and Wisconsin Focus on Energy.

According to the EPA, energy use in commercial buildings accounts for 17 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions at a cost of over $100 billion per year. Energy Star Leaders prevented the emissions of more than 220,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide and saved more than $48 million across their commercial building portfolios in 2009.

Partners are expected to help business customers plan and implement energy-efficiency improvements over time, starting with low-payback measures that can create revenue to fund capital upgrades in the future. They can also help customers identify buildings with the most opportunities for improvement and prioritize technical assistance and incentives for projects that will deliver the largest energy savings.

A key element of the program will be the EPA’s online energy measurement and tracking tool, Portfolio Manager, to score building performance.