One of the declared public policies of the state is to ensure that energy conservation practices and renewable energy systems are employed in the design of major publicly owned or leased facilities and the use of at least one renewable energy or combined heat and power system is considered.
Whenever a public agency determines any major facility or a critical governmental facility is to be constructed or renovated, the agency must include a life-cycle cost analysis in the design phase. The Department of Enterprise Services is responsible for developing guidelines to define a procedure and method for the performance of life-cycle cost analyses to promote the selection of low life-cycle cost alternatives. At a minimum, the guidelines must contain provisions that:
"Energy-consumption analysis" means the evaluation of all energy systems and components by demand and type of energy, including the internal energy load imposed on a major facility or a critical governmental facility by its occupants, equipment, and components, and the external energy load imposed on a major facility or a critical governmental facility by the climatic conditions of its location.
An energy-consumption analysis must include certain elements, including the comparison of three or more system alternatives, at least one of which must include renewable energy systems, and one must comply at a minimum with the sustainable design guidelines of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver standard.
The Legislature declares it is the public policy of the state to ensure that greenhouse gas emissions reduction practices are included in the design of major publicly owned or leased facilities, and the use of all-electric energy systems is considered in the design.
The life-cycle cost analysis guidelines developed by the Department of Enterprise Services must include provisions that identify all-electric energy systems as a system alternative.
The definition of energy-consumption analysis is amended to remove and replace the reference to a system alternative that complies with the sustainable design guidelines of the LEED silver standard with a system alternative that includes all-electric energy systems.
PRO: The bill is about an opportunity to save money in public facilities by using all electric consumption. An increasingly clean grid creates opportunities to reduce emissions with highly efficient heat pumps and other technology. We are trying to be careful about not burdening agencies with new responsibilities and would point to the zero fiscal impact in the fiscal note. The LEED standard is a bit outdated and we are replacing this standard with the all-electric alternative. This bill is just about examining whether this will save the agency money over time.
This effort takes another step toward Washington meeting climate goals, as the building sector accounts for around 20 percent of annual emissions. This type of analysis is something that should occur as part of the design phase, and this ensures that it always happens. It does not require buildings to be constructed with all electric systems. Conducting the analysis will encourage building owners, engineers, and architects to consider the fossil-fuel free options.
It also aligns state building practices with state energy laws to avoid higher costs in the future. Recent studies show that in many homes and buildings this is already the most cost effective option. The state energy strategy found electrification to be the most cost effective pathway for reaching carbon reduction goals.