District Energy / First Quarter 2012 63 62 District Energy / First Quarter 2012 © 2012 International District Energy Association. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

cerns from “legacy” LEED APs – who like me earned accreditation prior to the introduction of LEED AP specialties – as to whether they will be able to provide any value in the certification process.

• RegionalPriority – The credits in this category will be designed to take into account regional differences, such as weather.

• Location&Transportation – This category will include mostly relocated credits, such as Site Selection, plus a proposed new prerequisite for bicycle storage.

• Performance – This category is intend-ed to cover the ongoing performance and measurement of building energy and water use. There are proposed new prerequisites in this area, plus this category will be the new home for the Commissioning prerequisite and credit. In addition, new credits for submeter-ing of energy and water usage will also be included.

What’s the Outlook for District Energy? Throughout the review process, I have been monitoring the changes proposed for LEED 2012 for their impacts on district energy systems and the corresponding guideline document Treatment of District or Campus Thermal Energy in LEED, which outlines how to account for district energy service when a project building pursuing LEED certification receives energy from a district energy system. My conclusion? There will be many changes resulting in a significant impact on district energy systems and requiring a major revision to the district energy companion guidelines. As previously mentioned, in the current LEED rating process, the only credit category that pertains to district energy systems is Energy & Atmosphere. This is an important category in terms of the number of points that are contained within, and it allows system owners and operators to concern themselves with only one category. This will have to change in LEED 2012 as many of the traditional prerequisites and credits that affect district energy, such as Commissioning, Measurement and Verification, and even Minimum Energy Performance, are moving to a new home.

Editor’s Note: “LEED® + District Energy” is a quarterly column providing infor-mation about the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® rating system and how it applies to buildings served by district energy systems.

It seems like just yesterday the latest version of the LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)

rating system, LEED 2009, was released. Now, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is preparing the final version of the next update, LEED 2012, due to be released Nov. 7, 2012. This is all a part of the USGBC’s previously announced plan to release updates on a three-year cycle. As part of the process, draft versions of projected changes were released for review and comment at the the end of 2010, followed by a second draft and review period late this past summer. Now, with all comments collected, the commit-tees are working on the final document. The USGBC’s stated goal is to evolve the rating system until LEED certification also requires that a building has a neutral or positive environmental impact. This evolution is intended to be a gradual process, beginning first with Platinum-rated buildings and then continuing down through the rating system so that eventually even basic certification achieves the goal of environmental neutrality. The USGBC recognizes the current rating system does not yet achieve this goal and

will continue issuing updates on a regular cycle as part of this evolution.

LEED 2012: How Does It Look? First, a disclaimer: The final version of LEED 2012 has not been released, and thus I cannot state with assurance what the changes will be. However, based on the direction of the review process, following are some observations about where it appears to be heading. The structural changes proposed for LEED 2012 are the most significant since the first version was released. The rating system versions to date have consisted of six separate point or credit categories: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Materials & Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Innovation in Design. Of these categories, only one, Energy & Atmosphere, has applied to district energy systems. The latest proposal includes adding four new categories to the existing six. They are Integrated Process, Regional Priority, Location & Transportation, and Performance. Here’s a brief overview of these new credit categories: • Integrated Process – The first category

in the updated rating system, it is intended to encourage and reward inte-grated project teams that include LEED Accredited Professionals (APs) with a specialty applicable to the rating system. This has generated questions and con-

LEED 2012: Big changes ahead for district energyTim Griffin, PE, LEED AP, IDEA USGBC Liaison

LEED® + District Energy

District Energy / First Quarter 2012 63© 2012 International District Energy Association. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

As a result, in LEED 2012, several of the credit categories are going to apply to district energy. In addition, new credits within these categories, such as Cooling Tower Makeup Water added to the Water Efficiency category and Demand Response added to the Energy & Atmosphere cat-egory, will most likely apply to district energy. If load-shifting technologies such as thermal energy storage (TES) are allowed to be included as part of a project building’s Demand Response strategies, that will cre-ate new opportunities for systems with TES to earn points toward LEED certification.

In LEED 2012, several credit

categories – and new credits

within these categories – are

going to apply to district energy.

Beyond these proposed changes, there are several modifications to existing prereq-uisites and credits that will have an impact on district energy. Two of these are in credit categories that already provide the most frustration and opportunities for system owners and operation. The first and prob-ably most significant change – and some-times the biggest challenge – is related to both the Minimum Energy Performance pre-requisite and Optimize Energy Performance credit. For the first time, the LEED certifica-tion process is going to reach beyond the building as an energy user to the energy source. Building designers will now not only be required to provide an energy model, as in LEED 2009, but also to demonstrate a percentage improvement in the proposed building’s source energy. This will not only have an impact on district energy but will also for the first time affect traditional power and gas utilities. The potential impact on district energy systems could be either positive or negative depending on the par-ticular situation. Second, proposed changes to the Renewable Energy credit are major. Currently, for district energy systems that consume significant amounts of renewable energy, this credit provides opportunities to pass on to a project building a total of up to seven points. I have worked with a couple

of district energy companies that can pass the full seven points on to project buildings that receive energy from their systems. This is a powerful incentive for project buildings to do so, as well as a powerful incentive for district energy system owners to increase the amount of renewable energy they consume. The proposed LEED 2012 rating system, however, will reduce the maximum from seven to three points. This will provide less of an economic incentive for both proj-ect buildings and district energy systems to invest in renewable energy.

What Should IDEA Do? As a result of all these changes, an extensive rewrite to the USGBC’s district energy guidelines will be required for both the LEED for New Construction rating sys-tem and the LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance rating system. If the USGBC holds to its previous schedule with the last two versions of the district energy guideline, work will begin in ear-nest on that effort in first quarter 2012. Therefore, the time to get involved is now! In order to influence this process toward a balanced treatment of district energy, IDEA needs to play an integral part in updating these guides. If you’re interested in partici-pating in this process, please track me down at IDEA’s upcoming 25th Annual Campus Energy Conference in Arlington, Va. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Tim Griffin, PE, LEED, AP, is IDEA’s liaison with the U.S. Green Building Council and serves on IDEA’s board of directors. He is a principal and branch manager with RMF Engineering Inc., a firm specializing in district energy system planning, design and commissioning. A registered engineer and a LEED Accredited Professional, Griffin has a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University and a master of business administration degree from Colorado State University. He authored the book Winning With Millennials: How to Attract, Retain, and Empower Today’s Generation of Design Professionals. He may be reached at tgriffin@rmf.com.

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