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

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

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

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

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