We’ve now been doing EPAct tax deduction measurement, verification, and certification for our clients for a number of years. This initiative provides a huge incentive, $1.80/sq ft for Lighting, HVAC, or Building Envelope upgrades that qualify. Although Lighting is the most straightforward component, as it does not require facility modeling software to be run, there are significant opportunities to engage in multiple technology upgrades to maximize incentives. What we are learning is how few projects actually take advantage of the lucrative EPAct 2005 tax deduction as well as other incentives.
There are a number of other incentives in the marketplace beyond the utility rebates, which we help our customers uncover. Where rebates are not available, energy efficiency projects can earn ODR (Other Demand Resources) and or White Tags. In many cases, depending on the area, these incentives can be significant, but in large measure are ignored by most clients. Our experience is these incentives can/should be considered when designing multi-site projects in order to fully understand the true financial opportunity. One opportunity for a warehouse in Massachusetts where rebates were not available yielded $18,000 in ODR payments. That same facility will garner an additional $15,000/year in Demand Response payments from the New England ISO. The customer did not originally apply for these incentives merely because they were unaware of their existence, and thought that because the were dealing with a municipal energy provider, there were no other incentive opportunities.
