As shared in the Habitat Bricks & Mortar newsletter on July 31, 2024.
By Emily Myers
With co-op and condo buildings already seven months into the first Local Law 97 compliance period, access to real-time energy data is key to providing clarity on penalty exposure. After a roof replacement and a switch from oil to gas, the board at Westminster House, a 154-unit co-op on the Upper East Side, wanted evidence the building was on track to meet their 2025 emission limits. “We wanted to compare the data on how much energy we were spending several years ago versus now,” says Keith Lite, the board’s vice president.
Under Local Law 97 regulations, energy use for 2024 must be reported by May 1st, 2025, and this information will determine the penalties if emission thresholds are exceeded. Uncertain where the co-op's energy use stood in relation to these thresholds, Lite was pleased to get access to a real-time emission-monitoring tool offered through a partnership between Con Edison and climate technology firm Logical Buildings in return for a data share agreement.
The tool tracks daily and weekly electricity and gas consumption and shows whether the building is under or exceeding their compliance threshold and by what percentage through 2040. The tool is offered as part of Logical Buildings’ SmartKit AI, where co-ops and condos commit to participating in demand-response events and share in the revenue generated. This involves an agreement to lower a building’s energy use during peak demand events, typically during summer heatwaves and splitting utility payouts with Logical Buildings. Last year, Westminster House received $3,500 for participating in peak-demand events.
The emission-tracking tool requires no new hardware. “It’s made possible because of Con Edison’s smart meters,” says Alex Zafran, Logical Buildings’ director of business development. Under Local Law 97, the thresholds for carbon emissions get progressively steeper each five-year compliance period. “There are tables and graphs showing weekly gas and electricity usage compared to a penalty pace,” says Scott St Germain, a board member at the Upper West Side condo, Haroldon Court, which has access to the tool via the SmartKit AI platform. The penalty pace is the upper limit of energy use before penalties would kick in.
At Westminster house, the data currently shows the building running about 50% below the carbon limits for 2024 and about 30% below the building’s limits for 2030. These numbers are more helpful than those offered by online calculators using older data. For example, according to the NYC Accelerator’s Building Energy Snapshot, Westminster House would face a $60,100 fine in 2030 based on data from 2020. “Those projections also assume you are resting on your laurels and not doing anything more to reduce emissions,” Lite says.
The penalty pace graph can also help boards make necessary adjustments before the reporting deadline. At Haroldon Court, St Germain says the dashboard allows boards to look for trends, patterns and spikes in energy use: “This could help us smooth things out and find more efficient set points for the boiler,” he says. St Germain has also used the data to figure out whether a heat pump for domestic hot water in the summer is a viable option “I was able to see not just the cost of the gas outside heat season but also the cost in terms of carbon penalty,” he says.
This information could be gleaned from looking over past bills but this involves contacting the managing agent, asking for records and poring through them for relevant data. “Instead, the tool saves an incredible amount of time,” St Germain says. Likewise, most co-ops and condos submit annual energy-use data to an Energy Star Portfolio Manager, which gives the building’s efficiency grade. A statement based on that data tells you the past year’s energy use. You can then put these numbers into an online calculator like the one offered by the Building Energy Exchange to see whether the building is under its emission threshold. However, like tax filing, you are always working a year behind your actual figures “The real-time data tool is much more accurate, in terms of really understanding your numbers and whether you’ve made improvements,” Lite says.
Habitat Magazine