Are you a building owner who needs to comply with a mandatory benchmarking requirement? Do you have little or no experience using EPA’s Portfolio Manager tool?
Join us for a new, three-part webinar series on the basics of Portfolio Manager. Learn the ins and outs of the Portfolio Manager tool and get to know the benefits of energy efficiency and energy management. Using the tools in these training sessions, you can feel confident submitting your building data for compliance. In Part 1, you will learn the basics of Portfolio Manager and everything you need to submit your benchmarking report, while Parts 2 and 3 will take you beyond submitting your report to improving your building by understanding your building’s performance and helping you make a plan to reduce energy consumption and costs. All webinars are at 10 am PT Part 1: A Beginner’s Guide to Using Portfolio Manager for Benchmarking Law Compliance — January 26th Part 2: Using Benchmarking Results to Understand your Building’s Performance — February 24th |
Job Opportunities
Energy Management Analyst Supervisor, Seattle City Light
Location: Seattle, WA
Seattle City Light, a department of the City of Seattle, is one of the nation’s largest municipally owned utilities in terms of the number of customers served. Over the years we have worked very hard to keep Seattle’s electricity affordable, reliable, and environmentally sound. Today, City Light is a recognized national leader in energy efficiency and environmental stewardship.
Customer Care & Energy Solutions (CCES), the longest continuously operating municipal energy conservation initiative in the country, is seeking an Energy Management Analyst (EMA) Supervisor for the Project Development team. This supervisor will lead a team of multi-disciplinary energy management professionals who promote and deliver the utility’s portfolio of demand-side management programs to its commercial, industrial, multifamily, and institutional customers. The portfolio has historically been predominantly comprised of energy efficiency programs, however it is evolving and expanding to include distributed energy resources, such as demand response, distributed generation, electric vehicles, as well as building electrification. CCES is responsible for acquiring/delivering all cost-effective energy efficiency (kWh) to the utility (a least-cost resource) in support of I-937 targets – preserving and extending the benefits of Seattle City Light’s low-cost, carbon-neutral resources. The Project Development team, comprised of 18 EMAs, is responsible for delivering roughly 60% of the division’s resource acquisition target and processes several hundred customer energy management projects annually.
The Project Development team delivers programs and services that help our customer owners and community partners meet their evolving energy needs, while striving to be their most valued and trusted energy partner. The group works with business customers across all sectors to conduct program outreach, opportunity assessments, and project development activities. The team also works closely with owners, developers, building operators, property managers, tenants, and a network of contractors, distributors, architects, engineers, design consultants, and other service providers that enable this work. The team helps customers maximize the performance of their existing buildings (across capital, O&M, and behavioral improvements) and new construction projects (to exceed energy code requirements) and through equipment incentives at distributor channels. In addition, the team contributes heavily to program design & development with a focus on enhancing customer experience, implementing continuous process improvement, and minimizing evaluation risk.
This position is one of two EMA Supervisors who report to the Project Development Section Manager.
View the full job description and application requirements HERE.
Director of Energy Programs, Energy Trust of Oregon
Location: Portland, OR
About Us
Energy Trust of Oregon is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to energy efficiency and renewable energy development. We serve 1.6 million Oregon customers of Portland General Electric, Pacific Power, NW Natural, Cascade Natural Gas and Avista. These customers are renters, homeowners, commercial business owners, property managers, schools, agricultural operations, small to large industrial facilities and communities.
Since 2002, customers have saved $3.4 billion on energy bills from efficiency retrofits, high-performance new construction and renewable energy systems installed at 718,000 locations and purchased through retail and distributors. These dollars recirculate in Oregon’s economy, driving broader economic benefits for all.
Energy Trust is overseen by the Oregon Public Utility Commission and is accountable for meeting annual minimum performance measures set by the commission. A non-stakeholder, volunteer board of directors sets the strategic direction, policies
and annual budgets, and offers independent perspectives.
About the Director of Energy Programs Position
We’re looking for a visionary, innovative, strategic and collaborative individual to lead and advance Energy Trust’s energy efficiency and renewable energy programs into the dynamic energy future. The Director of Energy Programs is a senior leadership position at Energy Trust, managing the organization’s program teams in the direction, design and implementation of all of the organization’s energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. The Director of Energy Programs reports directly to the Executive Director and is a member of the executive management team.
Download the recruitment flyer for this position (PDF).
We will be accepting applications in January 2021. Please visit www.energytrust.org/about/careers beginning in January for the full position description and instructions on how to apply.
Marketing Manager – New Markets and Innovation, McKinstry
Location: Seattle, WA
At McKinstry, we’re proud to be a diverse and passionate group of innovators and problem-solvers, builders and engineers, mentors and students. We believe the world needs curious, forward-thinking, solutions-oriented people who want to make our planet better. We are committed to strengthening our diversity through recruiting, developing, and retaining professionals from all backgrounds, and we believe that promoting diversity, equity, and inclusivity is an integral component of our continuing quest To Build a Thriving Planet. If you are looking to leave a purposeful mark on the world, then McKinstry is the place for you.
Here’s where you come in:
We are currently seeking a Marketing Manager to join our team as a member of our sales engagement and enablement team. Join an established and dynamic team and make an immediate impact. This role will initially focus on new start-ups within our organization and strategic enterprise initiatives requiring specialized go-to-market expertise. It will further build our capacity to develop new offerings and accelerate new ventures against our 2025 plans and Aspirations. We are looking for candidates with strong AEC business acumen and multi-disciplined communications and marketing skills.
You’re great at:
Marketing Management
You know how to work in a fast-paced environment that requires juggling multiple deadlines concurrently and are looking for a dynamic role that provides new challenges and growth opportunity. You are competitive, self-motivated, and want to be a part of a winning team. You are an excellent facilitator, working across leaders and teams to develop winning strategies and differentiators for new products, services, or approaches to the market. You seek to understand our industry and client trends deeply, and the strategies needed to connect to clients effectively and build lasting relationships. You are comfortable managing others, but are also motivated to dig in and do the work yourself. You are an influencer with excellent relationship-building skills that bring people together to make an impact.
Communications
You know how to utilize all means to effectively communicate. Your storytelling ideas, strategies for how to best position digital mediums, and writing influences the way customers and markets see and connect to us, and sets up our vision of Building a Thriving Planet.
Leadership
You’re not only great at leading and managing people, but you like people. Being a great leader is important because we are a People First employer that values emotional intelligence, kindness, and trust. You understand and place value in recruiting, hiring, developing, inspiring, and retaining people. You know how to set performance goals and conduct performance evaluations for assigned team and provide supervision, mentorship, and motivation to assigned staff as required.
Commercial Window Upgrade Opportunity
For a limited time, commercial buildings that upgrade their low-performing single or double pane windows with secondary windows can receive an incentive by participating in a field test run by Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), in partnership with local utilities. In addition to an incentive from NEEA, projects will receive special pricing from the six participating manufacturers, 15-30% off the material cost depending on the manufacturer. Additional participant benefits may include utility incentives, professional photography and marketing, free energy modeling, and technical support. If you’re looking to improve your envelope, increase occupant comfort, and reduce outside noise and air infiltration, this is a great opportunity to leverage technical support and product discounts, while the building is empty or partially empty.
To see if your building qualifies for the field test or to learn more, email Jordan Pratt from Energy 350 at [email protected].
Seattle Energy Code Update Aims to Further Electrify Buildings Using Clean Energy
As part of the proposed Seattle Energy Code update, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan recently announced new steps to further electrify buildings using clean energy. By updating its energy code, the City will eliminate the use of fossil fuels in new commercial and large multi-family construction for space and most water heating in order to cut down on the significant emissions contributed by the building sector. These actions come as new City data show building emissions have been steadily increasing in past years.
The proposed Seattle Energy Code update includes the following key changes for commercial and large multifamily buildings:
- Eliminates all gas and most electric resistance space heating systems
- Eliminates gas water heating in large multifamily buildings and hotels
- Improves building exteriors to improve energy efficiency and comfort
- Creates more opportunities for solar power
- Requires electrical infrastructure necessary for future conversion of any gas appliances in multifamily buildings
Read the full press release here.
Melanie Danuser Recognized as a 2020 BOMA Hero!
The Smart Buildings Center (SBC) is proud to announce that Melanie Danuser, SBC Director of Education & Training, has been recognized as a 2020 Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) Hero by the Seattle-King County chapter. The following is from the BOMA press release announcing the award winners.
The BOMA Hero Awards recognize members in BOMA that have displayed hard work, dedication and were real stand outs among the membership. The time they give, the support they provide and the value they bring to members makes these individuals BOMA Heroes!
Melanie Danuser with the Northwest Energy Efficiency Council and the Smart Buildings Center is an active Education Committee member. Melanie is tremendously helpful in organizing the Engineer Skills Hours and contributes to BOMA Educational programming. This includes coordinating BOC instructors and finding relevant topics for our engineers. We really appreciate Melanie’s commitment to BOMA Education.
Read the full BOMA press release here. Congratulations to all the 2020 BOMA Heroes!
Seattle City Light Energy Efficiency as a Service (EEaS) Pilot Program Update
City Light would like to share with you the following updates to the Energy Efficiency as a Service (EEaS) pilot program.
- The next project solicitation. We are preparing to open Phase 2 of project solicitations in January 2021. Phase 2 will seek an additional 10 projects with expanded use-cases. Phase 2 solicitation will stay open for 3 months. Upon closing, applications will be reviewed and scored similar to the first solicitation phase. Phase 2 prospective applicants will be provided updated program materials prior to the opening of the next solicitation window. In future solicitations (Phase 3+), City Light will seek an additional 15 projects. The timing for future project solicitations will be determined in Q4 2020. In this next phase, eligibility will be expanded from the first solicitation to include the following non-residential building types:
- Existing buildings:
- City Light account type: Commercial
- Primary City Light account must for more than 90% of the building’s electricity
- Lease type: any
- Ownership type: any
- Size: Min 50.000sf
- Savings target: Project must intend to save 25% of annual electricity consumption
- New Construction:
- City Light account type: Commercial
- Primary City Light account must for more than 90% of the building’s electricity
- Electricity must be sole fuel source for the building (back-ups excluded)
- Lease type: any
- Ownership type: any
- Size: Min 50.000sf
- Savings target: Project must take the C401.3 Target Performance Path code compliance pathway and intend to perform 25% better than code requirement
- Existing buildings:
- M&V Implementation. In September 2020, Seattle City Light concluded a competitive solicitation process, selecting a M&V Consultant to support the program. We are pleased to announce that kW Engineering (with support from Facility Energy Solutions) was the successful respondent and will be implementing the M&V related activities for this program. This highly qualified team is actively developing the program’s M&V Plan, which is based on and will supplant the original M&V Guidelines as the technical rules for how energy savings are calculated and set the standard for information to be shared with City Light and the M&V Consultant in order to determine those savings.
- COVID-19. As you can imagine, COVID-19 has had a significant effect on performance-based programs like EEaS. Many of the brightest minds in the in the industry have worked together over the summer to develop industry standard methodologies for quantifying energy savings resulting from deep retrofits in buildings where operations may look very different than normal, due to the unprecedented times that we are living in. The Efficiency Valuation Organization (EVO)’s International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP) committee on Non-Routine Events and Adjustments has recently released a new Application Guide on Non-Routine Events and Adjustments. This guide will be a cornerstone for how City Light and others will address the effects of COVID-19 on building performance, and quantifying energy savings resulting from energy conservation measures.
- Future Use Cases. We have received requests on whether the program can be expanded to include existing residential buildings. At this time, City Light is not able to include existing residential buildings. There are unique challenges associated with these building types that need to be explored in greater depth before we can determine if the program can be expanded to include them. The decision to proceed with a second project solicitation now, was made in order to open the door to additional participants who are ready to submit their applications, without allowing additional study further delay project timelines. The primary barriers in the existing residential use case are outlined below. Please do know we are interested in working internally and with stakeholders in the multifamily and master-metered residential property management community to determine if and how we might overcome these barriers. Barriers to residential building inclusion in EEaS:
- Our utility billing and metering system currently does not have the ability to aggregate over 10 unique multifamily residential meters into a single monthly read.
- This is something that may be overcome in future system updates.
- At this time, installing a physical totalizer meter at buildings with individually metered units is not feasible.
- While a policy decision to allow master-metering of multifamily buildings would be initially limited to buildings participating in the EEaS pilot, there are significant cost and revenue considerations that need to be further studied and better understood.
- Residents losing access to the Utility Discount Program and other low income programs offered by SPU, Office of Housing, etc. that are accessed through the residents’ City Light accounts.
City Light is excited to move forward with this next phase of the EEaS pilot. Please reach out to Colm Otten, Senior Program Manager, Customer Care and Energy Solutions, at [email protected] or (206) 727-3576 with any questions you have.