FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katie Weeks, (202) 525-2883, x306; Katie.weeks@imt.org
IMT WILL DEVELOP RESOURCES THAT ENABLE CITIES TO BETTER ANALYZE AND DELIVER ENERGY EFFICIENCY SAVINGS.
Washington, DC—May 12, 2015—The Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) is pleased to announce that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected IMT for negotiations for $1 million in funding to develop an innovative toolkit based on the DOE’s Standard Energy Efficiency Database (SEED) and other resources such as the Building Energy Data Exchange Specification (BEDES) to enable cities and energy efficiency program administrators to better analyze building energy performance data and apply this data to the market in new and innovative ways.
“We are thrilled to continue our work with the DOE on creating tools and best practices that can help the market capture and capitalize on energy performance data,” said Cliff Majersik, executive director of IMT.
IMT’s partners on this three-year project include the District of Columbia Department of the Environment, New York City Energy Efficiency Corp., New York City Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, NYSERDA, and Vermont Energy Investment Corp.
Together, the project team will explore the value of energy performance data and policies such as benchmarking, audit, and retrocommissioning programs, with an eye on how data collected through these efficiency policies can be used to improve building energy efficiency policies, scale-up the market for energy efficiency services, create new building technologies, target commercial buildings that would most benefit from energy efficiency programs. Benchmarking is the process of measuring and reporting building energy use on a regular basis.
Under this funding, the project team will conduct pilot projects with commercial and multifamily program administrators in Washington, D.C. and New York City regarding the integration of SEED and BEDES—a dictionary of terms, definitions, and field formats created to facilitate the exchange of information on building characteristics and energy use—with existing customer relationship management systems to insert insight derived from building performance data into day-to-day work processes. During the pilot projects, team members will also help program administrators identify their poorest-performing buildings, identify which measures typically improve performance in those buildings, and design and deliver new programs and outreach strategies to engage with these buildings. From this work as a whole, the team will develop and disseminate a toolkit for cities, program administrators, and market actors across the country that will enable stakeholders to use this new market data in innovative ways to deliver energy efficiency savings more successfully.
The IMT funding is part of a larger, $6-million funding distribution from the DOE to increase energy efficiency of schools, offices, stores, and other U.S. buildings. IMT congratulates the other DOE grant recipients: the City of Milwaukee, DNV GL Energy, Energy Center of Wisconsin, Envision Charlotte, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, Performance Systems Development, and Retail Industry Leaders Association.
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ABOUT IMT: The Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization promoting energy efficiency, green building, and environmental protection in the United States and abroad. IMT's work addresses market failures that inhibit investment in energy efficiency and sustainability in the building sector. For more information, visit imt.org.