Submetering: Reducing NYC LL97 Penalties with Energy Cost Allocation

Audio Transcription

Click to go to the LL97 Audio Series Page - Episodes 1-5 

Jennifer Kearney (00:02):
And one of the big pushbacks that we get is, I know I'm going to save money with sub metering, but it doesn't have a specific payback because I don't know how much I'm wasting. And now, for the first time, we can actually point to a very specific payback.

Announcer (00:18):
Cities throughout the country will be watching New York City's Local Law 97, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions on all types of commercial buildings, including universities and hospitals. In this episode of utiliVisor's In Conversation, Richard Angerame, president of utiliVisor, and special guest Jennifer Kearney, partner and energy procurement consultant at New York City's Gotham 360, discuss how submetering can aid in reducing possible penalties by correctly allocating costs and energy use to building and campus occupants.

Richard Angerame (00:54):
You've been involved with a lot of larger hospitals here in New York. But how can submetering really help, okay, an owner, a hospital reduce their penalties with multiple different types of buildings for building uses?

Jennifer Kearney (01:10):
This is where we get super down into the granularity of the law and the way that the department of buildings is going to be receiving the Local Law 97 reports, and looking at the more flex building structures, which are primarily university campuses, research facilities, and life sciences campuses, which are that you are going to have multiple uses within one building. One block lot can have five to six different uses on the certificate of occupancy. All of the energy corresponding to those different uses needs to be delineated and subject to the cap of that occupancy type.

Jennifer Kearney (01:59):
So you can have, let's use a medical school as an example, you can have floors five through eight are classrooms, so that's an assembly type. You can have floors, nine through 14 are laboratory. And that laboratory space is subject to a different space type, which is Institutional II, non-production lab.

Jennifer Kearney (02:27):
But if you can't define and delineate with sub-metering, the energy consumption that's going in these labs, versus your assembly classrooms, the default value is to take all of the energy usage and divide it by the square feet and then apply it that way, which is is not as accurate as using submeter data.

Jennifer Kearney (02:52):
And it is also going to result in significantly higher fines to a building owner or that particular medical school, because when you divide it by square feet and you've got classrooms and labs, you're going to be subject, cost averaging among the space types, to a lower cap.

Richard Angerame (03:17):
Let me ask you a question, this applies not only to from submeter electric, but I would believe, in a campus facility to chill water and steam requirements too. Right?

Jennifer Kearney (03:26):
So all energy that is being consumed in the space. We like to see the chiller plant assets submetered so we can see exactly how much steam and how much electric goes into making a ton of chilled water. And then how much chilled water is consumed by the different space types.

Jennifer Kearney (03:47):
And you know this. We've been talking about it for 20 years with customers. And one of the big pushbacks that we get is, I know I'm going to save money with submetering, but it doesn't have a specific payback because I don't know how much I'm wasting.

Jennifer Kearney (04:02):
And now, for the first time, we can actually point to a very specific payback that the submetering is going to have by a penalty avoidance. So we can say, this is what your penalty would be if we take all of your energy and just divide it over your square feet, which is the default we think you're going to be, with the submetering, because we're going to be able to hold your most energy intensive spaces to that higher cap.

Richard Angerame (04:28):
By submetering the tenant, rather than being on a rent inclusion basis, that first they're only paying for what they use, rather than having embedded in the lease that they are paying $2 or $3 a square foot. But with other applications, what we're saying is that if you save money within your space, you get the direct results of it because you're paying less. So therefore, let's check your temperature control. Let's make sure your cleaning people are not turning on the air conditioning on Friday night and leaving it on all weekend.

Richard Angerame (04:57):
Where, from an occupancy standpoint, when do people really leave? What temperatures do you really need to maintain? And let's keep the lights off as best we can, because you're going to reduce costs, and the building is going to benefit from it from lower carbon penalties.

Announcer (05:16):
You've been listening to utiliVisor's In Conversation, where we discuss topics such as submetering, energy efficiency, and energy plant optimization. Your host is Richard Angerame, president of utiliVisor, with special guest, Jennifer Kearney, partner and energy procurement consultant at Gotham 360. This program is a production of utiliVisor, a leader in submetering and energy plan optimization. To contact us with comments or questions, email marketing@utiliVisor.com.

Announcer (05:49):
Our music is Moments Like This from Telestream's ScreenFlow library. Thanks for listening. Please note that this program should not be considered professional advice. The information, opinions, and recommendations presented here are for general information only. The opinions and views expressed in this episode are solely those of the individual speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of any agency, organization, or company. This program was recorded in 2021, copyright utiliVisor.