360 º PERSPECTIVE ON FEDERAL DEEP ENERGY RETROFITS

The report details the outcomes of the General Services Administration's (GSA) National Deep Energy Retrofit (NDER) program and a subsequent stakeholder workshop held in April 2014. It compares the energy savings of GSA's deep retrofits against other federal agencies and identifies systemic barriers and best practices in the Energy Saving Performance Contract (ESPC) process, focusing on project delivery, team dynamics, integrative design, operations and maintenance (O&M), and project economics.

• The GSA's National Deep Energy Retrofit (NDER) program achieved significantly higher energy savings than other federal agencies, with 10 GSA ESPC projects averaging 38% savings compared to 21% savings across 33 projects from other agencies.
• Deep energy retrofits aim for energy savings exceeding 50% through an integrative design and analysis process. Success depends on specific factors: selecting buildings that have not had recent retrofits, strong agency emphasis, thorough audits to identify energy conservation measures (ECMs), and an integrated design approach.
• There is a notable discrepancy between projected and actual energy savings; payback periods are almost universally longer in final results than those estimated during the Preliminary Assessment (PA) phase.
• The GSA established a project management office (PMO) to standardize the NDER process, providing consistent guidance, subject matter expertise to regions, and centralized contracting and executive project management.
• Project delivery is hindered by a lack of balance between the speed and accuracy of Preliminary Assessments (PAs). Proposed solutions include using ranges for cost and savings estimates, providing more transparent GSA guidance on presenting savings, and using a matrix based on building size and system complexity to determine PA timing.
• Maintaining team consistency across the project lifecycle—from development through construction and into the performance period—is critical for deep retrofits, which require high levels of technical innovation and buy-in.
• ESCOs are often hesitant to propose innovative technologies due to fears of project delays, despite GSA requests. Barriers include the competitive nature of the PA process, which limits stakeholder access and tends to strip out individual ECMs, thereby stifling innovation.
• The GSA currently misses opportunities for deeper savings by not including whole-building operations and maintenance (O&M) in ESPCs. Primary barriers include the need to meet small business contracting requirements and the difficulty of guaranteeing long-term savings when ESCOs lack control over daily O&M.
• Combining renovation and energy efficiency upgrades through a dual-contract process can incentivize contractors to reach guaranteed savings. Key recommendations include creating a project manager role to coordinate between ESCOs and renovation contractors and pre-selecting conducive projects within the GSA portfolio.
• The NDER Round 2 Program, released in May 2014, expanded the scope to 49 buildings across five regions, totaling over 19.6 million square feet.

APA

Carmichael, C., Chan, C., McClurg, C., Miller, D., Porst, K., Rader, B., Schiller, C., & Torbert, R. (2014). 360 º PERSPECTIVE ON FEDERAL DEEP ENERGY RETROFITS. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2014-28_360PerspectiveonFederalDeepEnergyRetrofit.pdf

Chicago

Carmichael, Cara, Coreina Chan, Chris McClurg, Doug Miller, Kinga Porst, Bodhi Rader, Craig Schiller, and Roy Torbert. 360 º PERSPECTIVE ON FEDERAL DEEP ENERGY RETROFITS. RMI, 2014. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2014-28_360PerspectiveonFederalDeepEnergyRetrofit.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{carmichael2014360, author = {Carmichael, Cara and Chan, Coreina and McClurg, Chris and Miller, Doug and Porst, Kinga and Rader, Bodhi and Schiller, Craig and Torbert, Roy}, title = {{360 º PERSPECTIVE ON FEDERAL DEEP ENERGY RETROFITS}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2014}, month = aug, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2014-28_360PerspectiveonFederalDeepEnergyRetrofit.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }