The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) have issued a joint request for information (RFI) on innovative, pre-commercial, or early commercial building technologies that can cost-effectively transform the operational efficiency of federal and commercial buildings. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) encourages its relevant stakeholders to respond to the RFI by the deadline at 11:59 p.m. EST on December 8, 2017.
The GSA and DoE will provide a web-based information session for more details on November 16, 2017.
The RFI, released on October 30, is intended for private-sector entities, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and other interested parties, and responses will be considered for inclusion in the GSA Proving Ground (GPG) program or the DOE High Impact Technology Innovation Catalyst (HIT Catalyst) program, or both (background information is posted online).
GSA and DoE are seeking responses specifically regarding technologies in "Behind-the-Meter Load Optimization" and "Improving Overall Building Operations and Maintenance," for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2018. Seven factors will be used to select technologies for measurement and validation (M&V) performance studies in FY 2018:
(1) Innovation: Degree to which the technology represents a transformational opportunity to improve federal and commercial building performance.
(2) Performance: Degree to which the submitted information establishes the technology's potential to:
(3) Costs/Savings: Potential of the technology to provide attractive simple payback or prove life-cycle cost-effectiveness when fully commercialized.
(4) Deployment Potential: Suitability and opportunity for broad commercial deployment. The GPG program specifically will be seeking technologies with clearly defined use cases that are suitable for broad deployment throughout GSA's portfolio, while the HIT Catalyst will evaluate technologies against the backdrop of the broader U.S. commercial building sector.
(5) Project Value: Likelihood that inclusion in one or both of the subject federal programs will inform further productive building technology integration research and development or respond to unique structural market barriers, or both.
(6) Technical Risk: Probability that the technology (a) will perform as intended when installed by a contractor in an occupied, operational building; (b) will be found acceptable by information technology, security, facilities staff, and building occupants, when applicable; and (c) has a demonstrated pathway to commercialization.
(7) Business Viability: Financial and operational stability of the technology provider through the manufacturing and deployment phases.
View the complete notice online for additional background information and to access the questionnaire.
ANSI is committed to supporting energy efficiency through its Energy Efficiency Standardization Coordination Collaborative (EESCC) and accreditation programs, as well as through the many ANSI members and accredited standards developers who do work in energy efficiency building technologies.