Multi-family Portfolio Approach Strategies

The following strategies can be incorporated in both rental as well as Home Owner Association scenarios.

Consumption Management

• Installing time of day metering equipment to find the peak demand
• Utility companies have acess to the aggregate energy use data for properties
• May have to go to commissions to compel them to give out aggregate energy use data on the units

Procurement management

• Using the scale of the portfolio as leverage for negotiating with the utility companies
• If you have a large number of properties, you may be able to ask for lower rates from utility providers due to the volume of business that a portfolio represents
• The drawback being that this approach would require much more than just a few hundred units to yield results in any negotiations 
• Auditing the bills for accuracy for all utilities
• It is not uncommon for mistakes in billing to occur, ranging from inaccurate consumption, inflated per unit costs or simple math errors 

Retrofits for Problem Areas

• Once areas for improvement have been identified, it is important to look into costs and Government incentives
• Utility incentives may also be available
• Present ROI and grants to HOA board for approval
• Savings may also be found through demand management and procurement of services, materials and supplies
• These savings can be an excellent jump off point if you are able to convince the ownership group or HOA board to reinvest that money into the retrofits so there is no net outlay  
• Could negotiate w/ vendor to share in savings if they install for no charge – same as payment schedule

• Educate and reinforce leadership position as developer/HOA management
• Any strategy will be less successful if asset managers, on-site managers and maintenance supervisors are not on board and supportive of the plan of action
• Use easy projects i.e. lighting with high ROI and combine with other more intensive projects to soften the cost blow and spread the ROI over multiple projects
• Energy star pilot project now underway
• Master Metering***

Getting Residents Involved

• Get billing info from owners/residents and post scores somewhere w/ anonymous code so residents can see their usage compared to the rest of the building, but no one can be identified
• Present ideas at COA meeting  

Summary

·      Energy Master Plan and Energy Use Index

·      Creating Value for clients by integrating sustainable practices

·      Master Plan involves Energy Database

• Communication and education
• Retrofits and capital projects
• Energy assessments
• Procurement
• Demand management
• Create Energy Team to execute energy services and report to clients
• Create energy accounting system
• Analyzing weather billing info and building parameters
• May need to customize for a particular portfolio
• When using portfolio approach you are able to identify the Hogs and Misers and allocate attention to hogs and get info from misers 

• Getting electronic records is critical for tracking usage when dealing with a portfolio and multiple months
• Reducing both Cost and Consumption
• Target maintenance and training
• Maintenance can make or break and energy program – Continuing Education is critical