According to Matt Golden, a senior energy finance consultant with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), in discussing the challenges associated with energy efficiency projects in a May 4 article on the Utility Dive website, noted, "These projects are very complicated and are unique by nature. This results in very expensive, time consuming, and complicated due diligence by every market actor. It is one of the major barriers to getting these projects completed, whether it is a building owner or an investor looking at a prospective investment."

Recently, the EDF has come up with a tool that might make such projects more appealing to all involved, especially building owners and other investors.

It is called the Investor Confidence Project (ICP), and it is set up to define a roadmap from retrofit opportunities to reliable "Investor-Ready Energy Efficiency" projects (see below).

With a suite of Commercial and Multifamily "Energy Performance Protocols" (EPPs) in place (also see below), ICP can reduce transaction costs by assembling existing standards and practices into a consistent and transparent process that promotes efficiency markets by increasing confidence in energy efficiency as a demand-side resource.

The ICP does not find projects or provide contractors. Rather, it manages a set of protocols and standards that parties can refer to.

The goal of the ICP is to convince all parties involved that a project will end up being cost-effective.

The ICP designation gives investors the confidence that they will not be required to conduct or commission complicated engineering work to ensure that a project will generate the expected savings, because the ICP will have already certified the project as adhering to a set of agreed-upon and common standards.

The ICP is already working with over 200 allied organizations to enable a marketplace for building owners, project developers, utilities, public programs and investors to trade in standardized energy efficiency projects.

"Investor-Ready Energy Efficiency" (IREE) refers to and provides information about energy-efficiency retrofit projects that conform to the requirements of the ICP "Energy Performance Protocols," have been originated by a credentialed project developer or specialist, and have been verified by a credentialed quality assurance provider.

To conform to the ICP "Energy Performance Protocols," the project developer or specialist must select the appropriate protocol for the project and then conduct all required steps for base-lining energy usage and predicted savings, as well as include specific plans as specified for commissioning, operations and maintenance, and measurement and verification.

Details of all requirements can be found in the ICP Project Development Specifications.

However, the ICP emphasizes, an IREE project designation does not constitute a guarantee of energy performance.

The ICP's EPPs are an "industry best practice" assembly of existing standards, practices and documentation that are compiled in order to create the data necessary to enable underwriting or managing of energy performance risk.

The ICP EPP portfolio includes six protocols that address different building types and project sizes/scopes. Similar to an appraisal pack in a commercial real estate deal, each defined EPP creates a standard set of documentation that will help standardize project performance underwriting, leading to better data on performance and a more efficient marketplace with less duplicative engineering and lower transaction costs. According to the ICP website, "The result should be an increase in deal flow and a more transparent and efficient market."

The six ICP EPPs are:

• Large Commercial Protocol (whole building, more than $1 million project cost, and expected total energy savings of 15 percent or more)
• Standard Commercial Protocol (whole building, less than $1 million project cost)
• Targeted Commercial Protocol (one or a few energy conservation measures [ECMs], limited interactive effects, and less than $1 million project cost)
• Large Multifamily Protocol (whole building, more than $1 million project cost), and expected total energy savings of 15 percent or more)
• Standard Multifamily Protocol (whole building, less than $1 million project cost)
• Targeted Multifamily Protocol (one or a few energy conservation measures [ECMs], limited interactive effects, and less than $1 million project cost).