The General Services Administration (GSA) May 17 released a blueprint on integrating Grid-Interactive Technologies into building renovation and improvement plans, along with the Department of Energy’s (DoE) National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL).
The goal is to create a guideline for how to implement energy-saving and cost-savings technologies into buildings being renovated by GSA to make them Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings (GEB). GEBs are “energy-efficient building(s) with smart technologies, characterized by the active use of distributed energy resources to optimize energy use for grid services, occupant needs, and preferences, and cost reductions in a continuous and integrated way,” the blueprint says.
“Through our National Deep Energy Retrofit program, GSA has been a leader in energy efficiency for decades. With this GEB blueprint from NREL, we will broaden our innovation in whole-building energy and cost savings and greenhouse gas reductions,” Kevin Kampschroer, director of GSA’s Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings, said in a release.
The blueprint guides not only the implementation process but the acquisition process as well. It points agencies through five phases: acquisition planning; utility or energy services company selection and preliminary assessment; pre-award project determination; project implementation; and post-assessment performance.
“Grid-interactive efficient building technologies will serve as an integral part of the ever-evolving energy landscape over the next few decades,” Sheila Hayter, NREL Laboratory Program Manager for DOE’s Federal Energy Management Program, said in the same release. “NREL is excited to be helping GSA continue to lead the federal sector in developing and applying advanced building technologies and procurement solutions.”
The GSA controls the largest commercial office space portfolio in the United States, so the plan would be to begin implementing the blueprint starting with GSA properties, before hopefully expanding to other agencies’ portfolios.
