Technology Corridor

How effective are federal energy efficiency regulations?

 

New buildings must meet federal energy efficiency guidelines, which have historically used site-energy measurements as the metric for building energy consumption. Using site-energy measurements, though, ends up favoring the use of electricity from the grid, rather than using electricity produced on site.

This issue is significant because Congress, in the pending energy bill, is considering a provision that would give incentives to builders and developers based on reductions in the site-energy consumption of their buildings. These incentives-unless limited specifically to reductions resulting from improvements in the building envelope, such as construction materials, insulation, glazing, and shading-would be nothing less than federally funded disincentives to on-site generation. And they would come at a time when the federal government is ostensibly promoting combined heat and power and district energy systems because of their high total energy efficiency and potential to reduce environmental emissions.

The site-energy measurement metric creates a bias toward using electricity from the grid because most losses from producing and delivering electricity placed on the grid occur upstream of the building meter, and therefore do not show up in the site-energy measurement efficiency calculation. In essence, all the inefficiencies of producing electricity happen off-camera. When electricity is produced and delivered on site, the site-energy "camera" captures losses inherent in making electricity, and so in comparison to electricity from the grid, appears inefficient. But a look at all the numbers, not just the ones on site, tell a different story.