Washington Establishes Decarbonization Planning Requirements for Campus District Energy Systems
New Bill Authorizes Energy as a Service (EaaS) Contracts for Energy Projects
OLYMPIA, WA — Governor Jay Inslee signed House Bill 1777 into law, authorizing the use of energy as a service (EaaS) as a performance-based contracting mechanism for public building owners. The legislation allows public building owners to fully leverage private sources of capital and maximize newly available federal funds to meet the state’s decarbonization standards for the built environment.
“This gives the state new ways to pay for and apply new retrofitting standards to dozens of government and publicly owned buildings across the state,” said Governor Inslee. “Taking care of a backlog of these building issues will help us reduce how much energy these buildings consume and lower the overall carbon footprint of these buildings, making them healthier and more comfortable places to work in.”
With historic pressures on capital budgets to meet decarbonization standards and a window of opportunity to maximize federal funds, the bill’s signing will help to drive public projects in Washington through public-private capital partnerships. EaaS contracts are now authorized for public energy projects, providing a path forward for public entities to implement energy projects without upfront capital outlay, without impact to debt capacity, without long-term operational and maintenance risk, and with terms that would fund larger more complex infrastructure projects.
“We applaud Washington’s leadership in decarbonization planning and developing this model public-private partnership,” said Ash Awad, McKinstry President and Chief Market Officer. “The need is great, and we celebrate the state’s continued commitment to taking on the decarbonization challenge in front of us.”
