A Complete Guide to LL88 Compliance for NYC Buildings

Local Law 88 Explained

Local Law 88 (LL88) is a New York City energy efficiency regulation enacted as part of the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan in 2009. It mandates: 

• Lighting system upgrades in common areas of covered buildings. 
• Installation of electrical sub-meters in large non-residential tenant spaces. 

The law applies to specific buildings over certain size thresholds and is designed to reduce energy consumption and support the city’s climate goals. 

Who Must Comply with Local Law 88? 

LL88 applies to the following types of properties: 

• Single buildings exceeding 25,000 gross square feet. 
• Two or more buildings, on the same tax lot, collectively exceeding 100,000 gross square feet. 
• Condominium buildings under a single board of managers that together exceed 100,000 gross square feet. 

Mixed-use and residential buildings with commercial tenants or amenity spaces larger than 5,000 square feet must also comply with sub-metering requirements. 

Why Building Owners Choose utiliVisor for LL88 Compliance

Proven Experience in NYC Energy Compliance 

utiliVisor brings over four decades of experience in building energy monitoring, sub-metering, and regulatory compliance. Our team understands New York City’s building codes and how to meet them efficiently. 

Turnkey Project Management 

From audits and design through to installation and DOB filing, utiliVisor delivers comprehensive LL88 compliance services with a single point of accountability. 

Real Energy and Cost Savings 

In addition to meeting legal requirements, LL88 compliance through utiliVisor can lower your building’s operating costs, improve tenant billing accuracy, and increase long-term energy performance. 

Trusted by Leading NYC Property Owners 

utiliVisor partners with building owners, operators, and property managers across all five boroughs to ensure compliance with LL88 and other local energy laws. 

1. Being in violation can be costly

As New York City continues to prioritize energy efficiency legislation, building owners and managers who choose to wait to address the legislative requirements will miss out on potential savings, and will be at risk of fines.

The NYC Department of Buildings will charge fees if a building is in violation.

The total fees are not something to blink at either. Before hiring utiliVisor, one client analyzed his property and the potential cost of non-compliance: 

"I ‌did‌ ‌the‌ ‌analysis‌ ‌and‌ ‌saw‌ ‌that‌ ‌our‌ ‌potential‌ ‌violation‌ ‌would‌ ‌be‌ ‌six‌ ‌figures. That‌ ‌definitely‌ ‌caught‌ people's‌ ‌attention.‌"
- NYC Property Manager

Many NYC buildings are facing potential fines for: 

• Exceeding the carbon emissions limits.

• Not executing accurate submetering and billing.

• Not upgrading lighting.   

2. Compliance Dates Are Coming Fast (or Why 2024 Isn't As Far Away As You Might Think)

The average commercial lease is for a ten-year term. Therefore, all newly signed tenants and renovation decisions will affect compliance.

Even if lawmakers amend the legislation and compliance dates are extended, a newly-leased tenant would likely still be impacted.

Additionally, if you want to promote tenant behavior change, offering tenants data and analytics of energy and utilities is critical.

Giving tenants access to their consumption data via submeters may be the best energy conservation measure for some buildings.  

When tenants can visualize their consumption data, it helps drive conservation behavior.

But this effect is minimal until an operations center manned with engineers to promote and assist tenant interaction and success.

3. A software or device-based approach won't be enough to get in compliance

The ongoing explosion of energy dashboards and software may be a tempting solution for buildings. They boast about savings that is theoretical and not measured.

But without accurate data and a team of energy experts monitoring, your building operations will struggle to achieve the new energy efficiency requirements and sustain long-term savings.

• Data Accuracy: The assumption that building automation, controls, and management systems create accurate data on their own is false.  

Systems require accuracy in instrumentation and setup parameters to perform their intended tasks. 

Providing consistent, accurate data only happens when instruments are commissioned correctly and parameters continually checked.

• People vs. Software: To drive tenants to only use the energy they need, you must have quality, energy data in the hands of energy experts who have:

  • Real-world understanding of energy-consuming devices and the systems they serve.

  • Regular ability to audit and understand utility bill(s) including rates, tariffs, and taxes.

  • In your face presence with confirmed facts and actionable recommendations.

  • Prove to tenants that savings and cost reduction is real.

  • Ability to engage with building occupants to promote conservation and eliminate waste.

4. Owners and property managers can see an ROI from their efforts

Building owners and managers often don't realize that their compliance efforts can increase actual asset valuation.

When you improve your building footprint and energy score, your utility and operations cost decrease. With these savings comes a higher Net Operating Income (NOI), therefore an increased valuation.
 

Sample Case Study: The hidden benefit of increased NOI & Valuation

• Sample building has common area utility expense of $1,000,000/year

• After retrofitting mechanical lighting equipment and submetering tenant usage, this is reduced to $900,000/year (10% reduction)

• Immediate Result = $100,000/yr increase in NOI

• Plus Hidden Benefit = $2,000,000 increase in valuation (@5% cap rate)
   

Offset Initial Costs With State & Utility Programs and Rebates

Commercial landlords can expect to see immense utility savings via submetering, BMS/BAS upgrades, lighting controls, etc.

This initial investment can be offset through utility rebates and state programs. 

Property Assessed Clean Energy ("PACE") (also referred to as C-PACE in the commercial building sector) is a new financing option for property owners offering 100% of the upfront costs to complete energy efficiency projects.  

Long-term repayment of up to 30 years makes longer payback projects immediately cash flow positive and buildings more valuable. These payments are embedded into the real estate tax payments.

The Real-Time Energy Management (RTEM) program from NYSERDA funds projects that use technologies to improve building performance by extracting data from existing control systems and creating actionable information to reduce operating costs.

This program has been fully subscribed to for commercial office buildings but still applies to residential.

You Don't Have To Wait Long to See A Return

It's a common misconception that commercial property owners will have to wait a long time to see energy and cost savings.

Richard Angerame, utiliVisor's CEO with more than forty years of energy management experience, shares that ownership won't have to wait long to see ROI when they partner with an energy service provider:

"In many cases, we get savings in the first thirty days. More importantly, savings add up over time and can be sustained."

utiliVisor verifies the savings and is also a “watchdog” on contractors to implement their scopes correctly, and the building engineers operate the systems correctly. This is the “insurance policy” a building owner needs to reduce costs, and we are truly a unique value-added service provider.

Conclusion

If building owners and managers want to avoid the fines associated with non-compliance while also increasing their building or property NOI, they must connect with a team of energy experts. 

A team of energy experts will serve as a bridge to real energy solutions that benefit the owner and tenant while meeting the energy efficiency requirements.

Local Law 97 Audio Series with Richard Angerame and Jennifer Kearney