Retrofitting buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Overview

As part of the District’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help fight climate change, the DCPSC advanced a “Whole Building Deep Energy Retrofit Program” (Formal Case 1148). This was an energy efficiency and energy conservation (EEEC) program that assisted affordable multifamily building owners with energy efficiency retrofit financing and helped them identify other energy programs to minimize their buildings’ energy usage.

The Clean Energy Omnibus Amendment Act of 2018 (Clean Energy Act) established new minimum Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) for owners of private buildings in the District. By ensuring that affordable multifamily building owners had access to resources to comply with the BEPS, the Deep Energy Retrofit Program helped achieve the District’s climate policy commitments. The program also supported the goal of the Clean Energy DC Plan to make equity and affordability central considerations when implementing climate policies.

Program Milestones and Final Status

To oversee the initiative and facilitate stakeholder involvement, the DCPSC established the EEEC Task Force in 2019. Following the selection of the International Center for Appropriate & Sustainable Technology (ICAST) as the program implementer in November 2020, the EEEC Task Force guided the program through several key milestones and funding disbursements.

In December 2022, the Commission accepted the First Annual Report and approved a $3 million disbursement from the EEEC Fund. This was followed by the acceptance of the Second Annual Report in June 2023, which unlocked a further disbursement of approximately $3.2 million.

The EEEC Task Force filed its third and final Annual Report in July 2024. Ultimately, in February 2025, the Commission formally accepted this Final Annual Report and directed the remaining program funds to be deposited with the DC Sustainable Energy Utility (DCSEU) for continued use in energy efficiency and conservation programs.

Impact Highlight: Supporting Veterans Through Energy Efficiency

In early 2025, the remaining FC1148 funds, totaling $243,171.79, were transferred to the DCSEU. The DCSEU used these funds to support a high-impact energy efficiency retrofit at a facility operated by Access Housing, Inc. Access Housing is a local nonprofit that provides safe housing, full meal service, and crucial counseling to homeless veterans.

This project successfully replaced 15 aging heat pumps with high-efficiency models and installed programmable thermostats serving 41 single-occupancy apartments.

The upgrades provided immediate benefits to the community and the environment. The new equipment enhanced comfort and heating and cooling reliability for 41 veteran households. Environmentally, the upgrades are expected to yield an estimated annual reduction of approximately 23,497 kWh in electricity usage, totaling around 422,946 kWh over the equipment's lifetime. Furthermore, the project directly supports the District's climate action goals by eliminating an estimated 252 metric tons of carbon dioxide over the life of the equipment.

Background

Recognizing that affordable housing developers often face limited access to financial resources to undertake building upgrades, work to create an EEEC program in the District began in October 2017 when the DCPSC set aside $11.25 million to fund such programs as part of Formal Case 1119, the Exelon-Pepco Holdings merger case.

Following the passage of the Clean Energy Act, the DCPSC held a technical conference in March 2018 to consider an EEEC deep retrofit program to provide whole-building energy savings to significantly reduce energy consumption in affordable multifamily buildings. An EEEC Working Group discussed how this program should be developed, taking into consideration related consumer education and outreach activities.

The EEEC Working Group recommended in June 2019 that the DCPSC hire a program implementer to finalize the Deep Energy Retrofit Program and serve as a single point of contact for all energy efficiency grant applicants. To execute these recommendations, the DCPSC formally established the EEEC Task Force in October 2019 to issue the necessary RFPs, review responses, and officially launch the program's implementation phase.

EEEC Task Force