Energy performance contracting – An incentive for improving the energy performance of the building envelope in existing commercial office buildings

Panel: Panel 4. Residential and commercial sectors: delivering lower energy use in buildings

Authors:
Rob Kilgour, Senior Engineer – Materials and Renewable Energy, GHD Global Pty Ltd,United Arab Emirates
Attilio Pigneri, Associate Director – Centre for Energy Research, Massey University, School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, Massey University, New Zealand

Abstract

A number of barriers limit the uptake of energy efficiency in existing commercial buildings, namely access to finance, traditional lease agreements and access to suitable technical knowledge of technologies and methods that can be used to achieve energy savings in building operations.

Energy performance contracting (EPC) is used to remove some of the barriers to energy efficiency by providing a delivery mechanism that enables access to commercial financing, improves access to technical information and reduces project risks for the end user. In commercial buildings EPC has been traditionally applied to the substitution or retrofit of end-use technologies for lighting or heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) services, whereby third party financing of the energy efficient improvement or measure is provided on the basis of shared or guaranteed savings contracts. Its application to tenanted buildings has largely been confined to government leases and educational facilities.

In this paper we examine the role of EPC as an incentive for improving the energy performance of the building envelope for buildings occupied by commercial tenants.

Two case studies are presented, with the analysis of energy efficient upgrades of the envelope for buildings located in cool-temperate climate zones (Wellington and Christchurch, New Zealand).

We review the contractual relationships in the traditional owner/tenant type lease agreement against "green leases" based on the green lease schedule developed in Australia by the Commonwealth Government, and propose a new framework for the implementation of building-envelope energy performance contracting (BE-EPC).