Investigating the gap between estimated and actual energy efficiency and conservation savings for public buildings projects & programs in United States

The gap between estimated and actual savings in energy efficiency and conservation (EE&C) projects or programs forms the problem statement for the scope of public and government buildings. This gap has been analyzed first on impact and then on process-level. On the impact-level, the methodology leads to categorization of the gap as ‘Realization Gap’. It then views the categorization of gap within the context of past and current narratives linked to realization gap. On process-level, the methodology leads to further analysis of realization gap on process evaluation basis. The process evaluation criterion, a product of this basis is then applied to two different programs (DESEU and NYC ACE) linked to the scope of this thesis. ☐ Utilizing the synergies of impact and process level analysis, it offers proposals on program development and its structure using our process evaluation criterion. Innovative financing and benefits distribution structure is thus developed and will remain part of the proposal. Restricted Stakeholder Crowd Financing and Risk-Free Incentivized return are the products of proposed financing and benefit distribution structure respectively. These products are then complimented by proposing an alternative approach in estimating EE&C savings. The approach advocates estimation based on range-allocation rather than currently utilized unique estimated savings approach. The Way Ahead section thus explores synergy between financial and engineering ranges of energy savings as a multi-discipline approach for future research. Moreover, it provides the proposed program structure with risk aversion and incentive allocation while dealing with uncertainty. This set of new approaches are believed to better fill the realization gap between estimated and actual energy efficiency savings