Local Law 87:
Local Law 87 (LL87) mandates that buildings over 50,000 gross square feet undergo periodic energy audit and retro-commissioning measures, as part of the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan (GGBP). The intent of this law is to inform building owners of their energy consumption through energy audits, which are surveys and analyses of energy use, and retro-commissioning, the process of ensuring correct equipment installation and performance.
In addition to benchmarking annual energy and water consumption, energy audits and retro-commissioning will give building owners a much more robust understanding of their buildings’ performance, eventually shifting the market towards increasingly efficient, high-performing buildings.
In summary, LL87’s energy audit and retro-commissioning process requires the following:
- Determine if a building needs to comply, and what year it is due.
- Conduct an energy audit and retro-commissioning of base building systems and complete an Energy Efficiency Report (EER) electronically.
Submit the Energy Efficiency Report once every ten years to the City by December 31.
Synergy’ Professional Engineers (PE) and Certified Energy Managers (CEM) are experts in performing investment grade Energy Audit and Retro-Commissioning. We have assisted multiple property owners to go beyond mandatory compliance with LL87 and used this opportunity to review property operations, identify inefficiencies and devise low to no-cost measures with immediate payback. When infrastructure upgrades are warranted and coincide with ownership goals, Synergy Engineering assists properties with specifying, implementing, inspecting and commissioning Energy Efficient upgrades while attaining significant rebates from State and City agencies.
What is an energy audit?
An energy audit is a systematic analysis of a building’s energy equipment and systems to identify cost-effective capital improvements that will save energy. An energy audit report provides a list of recommended strategies to save energy, along with an estimate of their cost and payback.
Local Law 87 requires property owners to receive an energy audit but does NOT require them to follow the recommendations described therein.
What is retro-commissioning?
Retro-commissioning is the testing and tune-up of existing building systems to confirm they are operating as designed and as efficiently as possible. Retro-commissioning commonly identifies maintenance, calibration and operations inefficiencies that are easily corrected and, when implemented, typically amount to significant energy savings and improvement in equipment reliability. Sometimes the testing will reveal apparent mistakes that originate from the building’s construction or a subsequent renovation. Any operations measures revealed through retro-commissioning as not in compliance with the Law must be rectified.
Local Law 87 only requires energy audits and retro-commissioning of “base building systems” which includes, but is not limited to, the building envelope, HVAC systems, elevators and escalators, domestic hot water supply, and electrical and lighting systems. Neither the energy audit nor retro-commissioning include equipment owned by tenants or used for industrial processes within the building.
Who is responsible for complying with Local Law 87?
Property owners, including co-ops and condo boards, are ultimately responsible for complying with the Law. However, many of these parties have property managers to whom they can delegate administration of the compliance work. This work includes hiring and supervising consultants to conduct the energy audit and retro-commission, as well as submiting the “Energy Efficiency Report” to DOB. The property manager may also be tasked with reviewing the consultant’s reports and recommending follow up action to the owner or co-op/condo board. This work may be considered an additional service under property manager’s contract.
How will Local Law 87 be enforced?
DOB is responsible for enforcement. Failure to comply with Local Law 87 will be deemed a Class 2 violation, subjecting property owners to fines of $3,000 for the first year and $5,000 for each additional year of non-compliance. DOB intends to conduct random reviews of documents submitted under the Law.
Examples of successful Retro-Commissioning (RCx) measures with low to no cost and immediate payback identified by Synergy Engineering are as follows:
- Office Space: RCx process identified improper operation of Outdoor Air Economizer Controls (Free-Cooling) and excessive use of Electric Compressors.
- High-Rise Office Building: RCx process identified improper staging and excessive pumping energy consumption of the chilled water distribution pumps.
- Large University Campus: RCx process identified “hidden” pressure drops in the chilled water distribution system.
- Large Hospital: RCx process identified simultaneous heating and cooling operation of air handling system.
- Office Building: RCx process identified excessive hours of operation of lighting and HVAC equipment.
- Educational Facility: RCx process identified sub-optimal settings for the hot water temperature reset.
- Large University Campus: RCx process identified excessive Fan Static Pressure set points of the main air handling system.
Some of the low-no-cost strategies implemented by Synergy:
- Optimum Start/Stop strategies
- Air side Economizer settings and Control
- Static pressure reset strategy
- Variable Frequency Drives settings
- Trimming pump impellers
- Preventing simultaneous heating and cooling
- Heat recovery
- Optimize schedule for equipment and lights
- Rebalancing
- Night purge and pre-cooling
- Temperature reset strategy
- Equipment staging
- Optimized control sequences
- Eliminating hidden pressure drops and restrictions to flow