NYC LOCAL LAW 87

Under New York City’s Local Law 87 of 2009 (LL87), all buildings over 50,000 square feet in gross area are required to perform an Energy Audit and Retro-Commissioning (RC-x) every 10 years.  The Energy Audit and Retro-Commissioning Analysis jointly comprise an Energy Efficiency Report that must be submitted to the NYC Department of Buildings by December 31st of the building’s reporting year to ensure compliance with Local Law 87.

New york city greener, greater building plan

To reach its aggressive sustainability goals, New York City needs to do more than improve new construction and renovations.  It has to proactively address energy waste in existing multi-family and commercial buildings.  It turns out that the city’s square footage is highly concentrated in less than two percent of its properties; two percent translates into roughly 15,000 properties over 50,000 square feet, which account for almost half of New York City’s square footage and 74% of New York City’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

components of local law 87

Energy Audit: An energy audit is a systematic analysis of a building’s energy equipment and systems to identify cost-effective capital improvements that will save energy. An energy audit report provides a list of recommended strategies to save energy, along with an estimate of their cost and payback. Local Law 87 requires property owners to receive an energy audit but does NOT require them to follow the recommendations described therein.

Retro-Commissioning (RC-x) Report: Retro-commissioning is the testing and tune-up of existing building systems to confirm they are operating as designed and as efficiently as possible. Retro-commissioning commonly identifies maintenance, calibration and operations errors that are easily corrected and, when implemented, typically amount to significant energy savings and improvement in equipment reliability. Often the retro-commissioning process will make apparent issues that originate from the building’s construction or a subsequent renovation. Any operations measures revealed through retro-commissioning as not in compliance with the Law must be rectified.

penalties for non-compliance

The Department of Buildings is responsible for the enforcement of Local law 87.  Failure to comply with Local Law 87 will be deemed a Class 2 violation, subjecting property owners to fines of $3,000 for the first year and $5,000 for each additional year of non-compliance. The Department of Buildings (DOB) intends to conduct random reviews of documents submitted under the Law.

Local Law 87

Our Partners 

Property owners, including co-ops and condo boards, are ultimately responsible for complying with Local Law 87.  Many of these parties have property managers to whom they can delegate administration of the compliance work. This work includes hiring and supervising consultants to conduct the energy audit and retro-commissioning, as well as submitting the “Energy Efficiency Report” to the Department of Buildings.  The property manager may also be tasked with reviewing the consultant’s reports and recommending follow up action to the owner or co-op/condo board.

Our Approach

Pinnacle Energy strives to produce quality and need-focused results to all energy audit and retro-commissioning projects. Our process will verify and document all lighting, equipment, operating conditions, control scenarios and operating variables that impact energy efficiency. Additionally, through the retro-commissioning process we will ensure that all commissioned building systems, components and assemblies are tested, operated and maintained to meet the specific current facility requirements

Our Goals

At Pinnacle Energy, our goal is to do everything necessary and possible to ensure that the Local Law 87 process is as stress-free as possible.  We strive to deliver a consistent, quality product at a competitive cost that ensures that your building systems operate properly, efficiently, and are well maintained. Our goals are to:

1. Deliver energy audits that meet the owner's needs. 

2. Prevent or eliminate problems inexpensively through proactive quality techniques.

3. Verify systems are installed and working correctly.

4. Lower overall first costs, operational costs and life-cycle costs for the owner. 

5. Provide documentation and records on the maintenance of the building equipment. 

6. Implement trend logs, automated and semi-automated RC-x tools to enable operation and maintenance staff to successfully complete ongoing Commissioning. 

7. Provide ongoing services to the building owner, staff and management to help maintain facility performance for the building's entire life cycle.