[§196-30]  Public buildings; benchmarks;
retro-commissioning guidelines; energy savings performance contracts.  (a) 
By December 31, 2010, each state department with responsibilities for the
design and construction of public buildings and facilities shall benchmark
every existing public building that is either larger than five thousand square
feet or uses more than eight thousand kilowatt-hours of electricity or energy
per year and shall use the benchmark as a basis for determining the State's
investment in improving the efficiency of its own building stock.  Benchmarking
shall be conducted using the ENERGY STAR portfolio management or equivalent
tool.  The energy resources coordinator shall provide training to affected
departments on the ENERGY STAR portfolio management or equivalent tool.



(b)  Public buildings shall be
retro-commissioned no less often than every five years.  The energy resources
coordinator shall establish retro-commissioning guidelines by January 1, 2010.



(c)  Departments may enter into energy savings
performance contracts with a third party to cover the capital costs of
energy-efficiency measures and distributed generation provided the terms of the
energy savings performance contracts conform to the benchmark standard.  The
comptroller may review and exempt specific projects as appropriate to take into
account cost-effectiveness.



Energy savings performance contracts shall be
executed according to state guidelines issued by the comptroller, and the
contracts shall be reviewed by the comptroller.  To expedite energy savings
performance contracting for public buildings, the department of accounting and
general services shall develop a master energy savings performance contracts
agreement that any department may use to contract with an energy savings
performance contracts provider for energy-efficiency and renewable energy
services.



(d)  For existing public buildings that undergo
a major retrofit or renovation, the department or departments responsible for
design and construction shall make investments in efficiency; provided that the
cost of the measures shall be recouped within twenty years. [L 2009, c 155, pt
of §11]