All About Los Angeles’ Existing Building Energy & Water Efficiency “EBEWE” Ordinance

1. All About Los Angeles’ Existing Building Energy & Water Efficiency “EBEWE” Ordinance Energy benchmarking and disclosure laws are popping up across the nation, but Los Angeles building owners are going to be pulling double duty. California's AB-802 and Los Angeles' Existing Building Energy and Water Efficiency Ordinance (EBEWE) are both going into effect. We have covered AB-802 in previous blog articles so here we focus on Los Angeles' EBEWE. You can find our most recent article specifically covering AB-802 at http://mep-llc.com/AB-802-ENERGY-STAR-and-YOUR-Building.html EBEWE was unanimously adopted by the LA City Council on December 14, 2016. The ordinance is a part of Mayor Eric Garcetti's Sustainable City plan and is geared toward reducing our buildings' energy and water consumption. The aim is to reduce energy consumption 30% by the year 2035. Before performing your building benchmark your building must be registered with the LADBS (Los Angeles Department of Building Safety). This can be done by visiting www.ladbs.org/ebeweregistration and entering the building ID# specified in the letter received from LADBS or from BIO (Building Information Online). There is also an annual disclosure compliance fee of $64.66. The EBEWE benchmarking process is easy if your building has already received an ENERGY STAR certification in the past year. This is because the ordinance uses Portfolio Manager to benchmark subject buildings. The only thing that you will have to add if you have completed an ENERGY STAR certification recently is your water data. However, if you do not have a Portfolio Manager profile it will take your property a few more steps to comply. Anyone who has completed an ENERGY STAR application for a multi-tenant building knows that one of the most difficult parts of the process can be getting energy bills from all of their tenants. Thankfully, this will no longer be an impediment since AB-802 requires utility companies to provide full building data upon request. As it stands LADWP is conducting pilot engagements to test new data aggregation systems that will allow them to provide full building data to building owners. This is projected to be fully launched sometime during April 2017. Likewise SoCal Gas is updating their data aggregation process. Their new request form is expected to launch in April 2017 as well.

2. The EBEWE will first affect owners of buildings >100,000 square feet. Note that this value includes parking structures. Building owners will or have already received letters from the LADBS. The compliance deadline for these buildings is July 1st, 2017. Buildings of different sizes will be required to comply by different dates. For buildings of 50,000 to 100,000 square feet the compliance deadline is April 1st, 2018. For buildings of 20,000 to 50,000 square feet the compliance date is April 1st, 2019. Once a benchmark has been completed covered buildings will need to complete their annual energy and water benchmark every April 1st thereafter. There are specific situations in which a building does not need to comply with EBEWE, such as when it has been vacant for an entire year with no Certificate of Occupancy, a Demolition permit has been issued, or no energy or water service was provided for an entire year. Single family homes, duplexes, residential hotels, sound stages, TV and film production facilities are also exempt from the EBEWE Ordinance. Further out are the compliance dates for Energy Star certification and water audit completion and submittal. These are scheduled to begin as early as 2019 and these reports will be required to be completed and submitted every 5 years. Every 5 years thereafter buildings must achieve either an ENERGY STAR certification or have a CA licensed engineer certify they have reduced their Energy Use Intensity by 15%. If this standard is not achieved the building must perform an Energy Audit. For water use intensity the reduction standard is 20%. Subject buildings must either complete a water audit every 5 years starting in 2019 or have a CA licensed engineer confirm that their building has reduced Water Use Intensity by 20% compared to 5 years preceding. Each benchmark requires building owners to report a full year of energy data (electric, gas, etc.) as well as a full year of water use data. Compliant buildings will have their annual utility consumption data posted to an LADBS database, which will be made public. You can review the compliance instructions on the LADBS website at the following link: https://www.ladbs.org/services/green-building-sustainability/existing-buildings-energy-water- efficiency-program/how-to-comply-with-ebewe-program Benchmarking is easier now than it ever has been. Increasing legislative and demonstrative fiscal incentives make it hard to see the downside to performing an energy benchmark. This Blog article has been posted by Maximum Energy Professionals “MEP”, a mechanical engineering firm located in Torrance, CA. For information on Sustainability Services including: ENERGY STAR utility benchmarking and award certification, California AB802 Compliance, City of Los Angeles EBEWE Compliance, our Utility Data Management Software dashboard, ASHRAE energy audits, LEED, and energy conservation/green Mechanical-Electrical-Plumbing systems and equipment design, please give us a call at 310-782-1410 or visit our website at www.mep-llc.com.