The Energy Savings Opportunities Summary is a read-only tab that outlines key energy-saving and economic considerations of each EEM package. A key consideration for buildings not meeting the DC BEPS is the potential to avoid alternative compliance penalties by meeting energy performance requirements of a Compliance Cycle. Several fields in this tab are unique to the DC BEPS Energy Audit Report to include this consideration as part of the economic analysis.


Note that while they are acceptable to include in the energy audit, EEMs involving replacing a fuel-burning system will not be credited for savings and penalty reduction in Prescriptive Pathway Action Plan.


Energy Saving Measures identified as RCx measures in the Energy Savings Opportunities – Measures tab are summarized in a Retro Commissioning Measures section at the bottom of this summary, regardless of how they are added to EEM packages. This summary can help the auditor understand how using RCx can assist in complying with the BEPS. In the Prescriptive Pathway, RCx measures require a separate assessment and implementation process using an RCx agent and shall be credited 5 or 8 points (instead of points based on percent of the total estimated Site EUI savings) depending on the RCx assessment methods used for the Preliminary Retro-commissioning report submitted with the Action Plan. See Section 3.3.3 of the BEPS Guidebook for more information.


Maximum Penalty Amount

Under the BEPS Compliance Regulations, a building that does not meet the BEPS is placed in a Compliance Cycle. Building owners that fail to complete implementation of the energy performance requirements of a Compliance Pathway by the end of the Compliance Cycle must pay an alternative compliance penalty established by DOEE in 20 DCMR 3521.1. The Maximum Penalty Amount shown at the top of this section assumes the building does not meet the BEPS and is calculated based on the gross floor area entered into the audit template. The result shown is the minimum of ($10/ft2 × gross floor area (ft2)) and $7,500,000.


Data from the Energy Savings Opportunity Measures Tab

The package information for Simple ROI, Simple Payback (excluding incentives) (years), and Simple Payback (including incentives)(years) are derived from financial information entered in the Energy Savings Opportunity Measures Tab. See this User Guide page for the definitions of these fields. The summary savings are compiled at a package level based upon how they were grouped in the Energy Savings Opportunity Package tab.


Total Cost Savings

Sum of annual cost savings ($) entered in the Building Energy Savings Opportunities Measures section for all EEMs within the package as grouped in the Building Energy Savings Opportunities Packages section.


Total Measure Costs

Sum of the measure cost (without incentives) ($) entered in the Building Energy Savings Opportunities Measures section for all EEMs within the package as grouped in the Building Energy Savings Opportunities Packages section.


Total Net Measure Cost, not shown on this table, is equal to the Total Measure Cost minus package Potential Incentives (see next section).


Potential Incentives

Sum of the potential incentives ($) entered in the Building Energy Savings Opportunities Measures section for all EEMs within the package as grouped in the Building Energy Savings Opportunities Packages section.


Simple ROI (including incentives)

Calculated for each package as 100% × Total Cost Savings / (Total Measure Cost – Potential Incentives)


Simple Payback (excluding and including incentives)

Calculated for each package:

  • Simple Payback with incentives (in years; excluding incentives) = Total Measure Cost/Total Cost Savings
  • Simple Payback (in years; including incentives) = Total Net Measure Cost/Total Cost Savings


Life Cycle Savings 

Life Cycle Savings is the present value of the package’s energy cost savings accumulated over the lifetimes of the measures within this package. Future year savings are discounted by the discount rate for each measure entered in the table for the Energy Savings Opportunities Tab. For each measure, the life cycle savings is calculated as the summation of i = 1 to n (n = measure life in years) of:


Total Cost Savings / (1 + Discount Rate)i


The Life Cycle Savings of the package is found by summing of the results from the equation above for each EEM in the package.


Savings to Investment Ratio (SIR)

Savings to investment ratio for any EEM is the total lifetime cost savings of an EEM divided by the initial cost to implement the EEM. To calculate the package SIR, the package Life Cycle Savings is divided by the package Total Measure Cost.


Site Energy Reduction

For each package, the site energy reduction is calculated as the reduction from the baseline building energy use on an annual basis. The total annual energy reduction from all measures in the package is divided by the total annual building energy use based on the estimated energy savings as follows:


(EEM_savings1 x kBtuConversion1 + … + EEM_savingsn x Conversionn) / [Total Building Annual Summary for Energy Use (kBtu) + Total Building Annual Summary for On-Site Renewables Generated (kBtu) - Total Building Annual Summary for Exported Energy (kBtu)]


The result is converted to and displayed as a percentage of the annual building energy use.


To comply with the requirements of a DC BEPS Energy Audit Report for the Prescriptive Pathway, an energy audit must identify opportunities to save at least 40% site energy from the baseline if the building baseline site EUI is above the EPA national median Site EUI for that building’s property type, or 30% site energy for all other buildings. If the auditor cannot identify EEMs to satisfy the minimum percentage, the auditor must include an explanation in the “Additional Comments” section under Contact Information and Audit Details-> Audit Details. See Section 3.3.4.1 of the BEPS Guidebook for more information.


Potential Penalty Avoided

This column is the potential BEPS alternative compliance penalty avoidance from implementing the EEM package based on the estimated energy savings from the package. Since this tool is primarily intended for buildings not meeting the BEPS and intending to follow the Prescriptive Pathway, the calculation is based upon the rules for penalty adjustments for the Prescriptive Pathway in 20 DCMR 3521.2. The reduction is based on assigned “points”, which is roughly equivalent to % Site EUI savings of each measure. 25 points will be required to meet the energy performance requirements of the Prescriptive Pathway, so the penalty avoidance is estimated based on the audit’s findings of energy reduction for the package and its contribution towards the 25 points that will ultimately be required. However, the penalty avoided cannot exceed the potential maximum for the building, and it is calculated as follows:


Lesser of [("Site energy reduction"/.25) * "Potential Maximum Penalty"] and "Potential Maximum Penalty", rounded to the nearest $10,000


Some disclaimers about the Potential Penalty Avoided column:

  • Penalty savings are assessed for each package individually, even when multiple packages are present. The sum of potential penalty avoidance for multiple packages could exceed the maximum penalty for the building. Take care to avoid double-counting measures or over-counting the impact of penalty avoidance.
  • The value of penalty avoidance is not included in other economic measures presented in the table.
  • This tool does not verify the accuracy of data used to estimate the maximum penalties and penalty avoidance.
  • This tool does not assess whether the EEM presented is eligible for points on the Prescriptive Pathway. Therefore, it also does not assess whether implementing the EEM would, in fact, contribute towards avoiding an alternative compliance penalty.
  • The dollar totals shown in this tool are not definitive or binding, and they are only intended to assist building owners in assessing the impact of the measure. The point value for each EEM will be assigned at the Action Plan Phase for the Prescriptive Pathway.
  • The rounding of the potential penalty in this table is done only to improve legibility, and it does not reflect the rounding rules that DOEE would use to determine actual penalties.


For buildings that ultimately pursue a Pathway other than the Prescriptive Pathway, this column can still be used by auditors and owners to estimate the potential impact of the measure to avoid alternative compliance penalties for the BEPS program.