Energy Efficiency Management for Large-scale commercial and public sector (LCP) buildings (especially government office buildings )

1. The total building area of public buildings in China is about 7.8 billion m², electricity consumption 380 billion kwh (48.6kWh/m²•a), the total energy consumption (except for heating) is 141 million tce (18.1kgce/m²•a) (THUBERC 2010).
2. The building area of existing Large-scale Commercial and Public sector (LCP) buildings is about 500 million m², less than 4% of the urban building area. However, its electricity consumption is almost 100 billion kwh per year, more than 25% of the total electricity consumption by the urban buildings. It is said that LCP buildings have more than 30% energy saving potential (THUBERC 2010).

Policy 1: To build up the national supervision and management system for Large-scale Commercial and Public sector (LCP) buildings , to improve regulations for energy efficiency evaluation, energy consumption statistics, energy audits, and energy efficiency public notification etc. The overall aim was to reduce the total energy consumption of LCP buildings by 20% and thus reach energy savings of 11-15 million tce by the end of 11th 5-year period.
Policy 2: To specify the management of special subsidy for LCP buildings, including the target groups that can obtain the subsidies, the procedure for application and approval, and the management and supervision of the subsidy use.
Policy 3 & Policy 4: To support Policy 1 and Policy 2, and provide the guidance for energy auditing and five technical guidelines for establishing an energy consumption monitoring system in LCP buildings i.e. for energy consumption data collection, data transmission, energy metering devices installation, data centre construction and maintenance, monitoring system construction, acceptation, operation and management.
Policy 5: To promote energy efficiency in public administration which can serve as an example for the whole society.
Policy 6: To strengthen the energy efficiency management of commercial and public sector buildings in order to ensure the accomplishment of the 11th five-year energy saving target for public buildings. Key tasks include establishing a monitoring system and indoor temperature control, promoting energy performance contracting etc.
Policy 7: To release the energy efficiency targets for commercial and public sector buildings during the 12th five-Year period: to reduce the m² energy consumption for commercial and public sector buildings by 10% and LCP buildings by 15%. Ministry of Finance (MOF) provides a subsidy for energy-efficiency retrofitting projects under the framework of the energy performance contracting . In addition, the policy stresses the enforcement of energy code for commercial and public sector buildings as well as the continuous development of a supervision and management system. More importantly, it aims to promote the energy-efficient retrofitting of commercial and public sector buildings in key cities, universities and colleges, and central government office buildings. Key cities are selected by MOF and MOHURD, where the retrofitting area should not be less than 4 million m². Policy 7 includes the following key actions:

1. Enhancing the energy consumption statistics, auditing and public notification - especially for so-called “key energy consuming buildings” i.e. a building with higher energy consumption per m² than the average and a total annual energy consumption more than 1000 tce. The major measures are to carry out an energy audit for more than 50% of “key energy consuming buildings”, and public notification for those high energy-consuming buildings that rank in the first half, and the good practices employed in low energy consumption buildings.
2. Continuously promoting the construction of an energy efficiency monitoring platform for commercial and public sector buildings in pilot provinces, cities, as well as universities and colleges, with financial support by central government in accordance with Policy 2. 
3. Implementing energy consumption quota management: The establishment of this quota system serves as a foundation for the development of energy efficiency carbon trading, which is currently at a pilot stage. The local government should establish the energy consumption quota system for commercial and public sector buildings based on energy statistics, auditing and monitoring. The quota system refers to the annual specific energy consumption limit/cap (in kWh/m²/year or in kWh/person/year) for a specific building to fulfil its functions. There are three types of quota management: total energy consumption quota , energy consumption quota for different uses (such as lighting, heating etc), and individualized energy consumption quota for specific buildings. The quota system should be enforced with sanction measures, e.g. increasing energy charges and requiring mandatory retrofitting for those buildings that exceed their quota. 
4. Promoting the development of the energy efficiency trading mechanism at local level, and strengthening the energy performance contracting for energy-efficient retrofitting in commercial and public sector buildings .
5. Implementing energy efficiency retrofitting for commercial and public sector buildings, such as universities and colleges, as well as central government office buildings, in key cities. 

It is a national policy.

Relevant sectors

• Services: Large-scale Commercial and Public sector (LCP) buildings (especially government office buildings)
• Industrial

Key action targeted on the whole building system:

1. Enforcement of energy efficiency standards for new commercial and public sector buildings and energy management;
2. Energy consumption monitoring and management system development for Large-scale Commercial and Public sector (LCP) buildings ;
3. Energy efficiency retrofitting for commercial and public sector buildings. 

Relevant target groups

• Property development company
• System supplier
• Investor
• Investor-occupier
• Energy consultant
• Governmental actor

Direct beneficiaries

• Investor-occupier

• User

Indirect beneficiaries

• System supplier

• Energy consultant

Relevant barriers

• Knowledge and information barriers: The policy set provides information to the local government and major actors at the design, development, and construction phases of LCP buildings as well as information about saving targets, implementation strategy for LCP building energy efficiency management and how to apply for central subsidies etc.
• Economic and financial barriers: Policy 2 and Policy 7 financially support local government for the development of energy efficiency supervision and management systems for LCP buildings and energy efficiency retrofitting in key projects.
• Lack of interest and motivation in energy efficiency-improvement: The policy set addresses the barrier of investors to set up the energy management system in LCP buildings due to the high transaction costs

Relevant incentives

• Saved energy costs: The investor-occupiers of the buildings can benefit from the saved energy costs through energy management

In this policy set, the stages of design and construction of Large-scale Commercial and Public sector (LCP) buildings are also covered. Therefore, Policy 5 in Policy set 1 i.e. “Design Standards for Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings”, is the base standard for new LCP buildings.

China is a large country with different climate conditions and development levels. To bring together all the scattered building energy consumption data, this policy set was designed with a step-by-step strategy - from statistics and audit monitoring to data analysis and retrofitting, from demonstration cities to nationwide projects, which effectively guide public building energy efficiency.

The policy package could be optimised. 

To formulate the energy quota standard in the next step, based on the current work in energy statistics, audit, monitoring of Large-scale Commercial and Public sector (LCP) buildings

The following pre-conditions are necessary to implement this type of policy:

Agencies or other actors responsible for implementation
Organisations such as - building energy efficiency consulting organizations, energy efficiency testing agencies, building retrofit contractors - are all key for the energy management of Large-scale Commercial and Public sector (LCP) buildings.
Technical support agencies should have error correction and analysis capability to deal with the mass data.

Funding
Subsidies at an early stage are necessary for implementing energy management in LCP buildings.
Policy 2 specifies the range of the special fund for LCP buildings in three aspects - expenditure of building energy efficiency monitoring and management system establishment, building energy efficiency retrofitting discount loan, and other related expenditure.
In Policy 7, central subsidies provide to retrofitting of LCP buildings in key cities and college buildings with 20 Yuan per m² as well as to office buildings of the central government

Policy design process includes the pre-study of energy consumption of Large-scale Commercial and Public sector (LCP) buildings, stakeholder consultation, expert working meetings, and discussion about policy details among relevant ministries at a central level.
The monitoring of energy consumption in governmental office buildings and LCP buildings is implemented on a step-by-step basis. Beijing, Tianjin, and Shenzhen were selected to be the first group of pilot cities for establishing monitoring platforms of energy consumption for commercial and public sector buildings. These pilots were assessed as being successful and are now expected to be improved further, in particular, by expanding the scope of monitoring. Jiangsu, Inner Mongolia, and Chongqing were selected as the second group of pilot provinces and pilot cities to construct an energy consumption monitoring platform.

Quantified target
Policy 7: The expected energy saving is to reduce the energy consumption per m² of commercial and public sector buildings by 10%, and Large-scale Commercial and Public sector (LCP) buildings by 15% during the 12th Five-Year period, in comparison with the average value of the 11th Five-Year period. For key cities, the reduction of energy consumption in commercial and public sector buildings should be more than 20%, and 30% for LCP buildings, by 2015,. The retrofitted floor area of those key cities should not be less than 4 million m² within two years after the approval of their application for central subsidy; the retrofitted floor area for college buildings should not be less than 200,000 m² with energy consumption per m² reduction of more than 20%.
During the 12th five-year period, the target is to build up 20 provincial energy consumption monitoring platforms and accomplish dynamic energy monitoring for 5000 buildings; to launch the resource-saving colleges pilot work for 200 colleges; implement energy efficiency retrofitting for 50 colleges and more than 10 key cities, covering 60 million m².

Actors responsible for design
Policy 1: MOHURD, MOF
Policy 2: MOHURD, MOF
Policy 3: MOHURD
Policy 4: MOHURD
Policy 5: State Council of PRC
Policy 6: MOHURD
Policy 7: MOHURD, MOF

Actors responsible for implementation
Local construction and financial administration departments; public building developer, construction companies, building design organizations.

Monitoring
Energy efficiency in Large-scale Commercial and Public sector (LCP) buildings is one of the key areas in the annual inspection by MOHURD.
The annual inspection covers the implementation situation of the building energy consumption statistics, auditing, public notification, real-time monitoring of energy consumption in LCP buildings.
The data recorded includes the number of buildings conducting energy consumption statistics, energy audits, and buildings being monitored by the building energy consumption monitoring platforms.

Evaluation
The economic benefits and costs have not been evaluated, because the policy set only addresses the data collection phase. However, a significant amount of subsidies was provided:

1. During the 11th five-year period, there were 9 provinces and cities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Jiangsu, Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Guizhou) being selected as a pilot city for the constructing of a building energy consumption dynamic monitoring platform, and each province and city obtained a subsidy of over 20 million RMB (specific subsidy related to the construction scale).
2. During the 11th 5-year period, there were 72 colleges being selected as the resource-saving pilot colleges, which obtained a subsidy of more than 4 million RMB each.
3. Central subsidies are provided to the key cities at a rate of 20 Yuan per m² while the retrofit work load, content and the energy efficiency results are all under consideration. Currently, only Beijing, Shenzhen, and Chongqing have been selected as the first group of key cities for building energy efficiency retrofit, and each city will obtain a special subsidy of around 80 million RMB. 

• Dynamic market transformation and/or innovation: This policy set tries to improve the energy efficiency of Large-scale Commercial and Public sector (LCP) buildings by setting up an energy consumption quota system, the energy consumption statistics, energy audits, public notification, and monitoring. The policy set aims at formulating the building energy quota standard and developing the building energy efficiency trading platform.
• Creating Spill-over effects: The aims of the policy set include promoting the establishment of a building energy efficiency trading market and improving energy performance contracting, which can maximise spill-over effects afterwards.

The following barriers have been experienced during the implementation of the policy
Given the low incentives offered to the tenants or the property management companies, it is difficult to conduct the building data survey.
Data quality is currently insufficient so that much work is involved in the data analysis stage.

The following measures have been undertaken to overcome the barriers
To regulate the data transfer of the monitoring systems between national and provincial levels, so as to ensure data consistency, integrity and accuracy, MOHURD released the “Regulation of energy consumption monitoring system: data reporting on energy consumption in Large-scale Commercial and Public sector (LCP) buildings” in July, 2011 (MOHURD 2011).

Policy 1, 2, 3: The planned energy saving was to reduce the total energy consumption of Large-scale Commercial and Public sector (LCP) buildings by 20%, thereby saving 11-15 million tce until the end of the 11th five-year period (2006-2010).
Policy 7: The expected energy saving is to reduce the energy consumption per m² in public buildings by 10%, and in LCP buildings by 15% during the 12th five-year period (2011-2015). For key cities the reduction of energy consumption in commercial and public sector buildings should be more than 20%, and 30% for LCP buildings, by 2015.

The derived cumulative energy savings from 2005 to 2010 is 11.23 Mtce (Zhou et al. 2011).

During the the 11th five-year period, central financial subsidy was 15.2 billion RMB for existing residential building retrofitting, renewable energy use in buildings, and supervision and management systems for Large-scale Commercial and Public sector (LCP) buildings (Annual inspection report MOHURD in 2010). But no specific number for each approach.

The costs of policy: e.g. subsidies should be lower than the high amount of energy costs saved by the Large-scale Commercial and Public sector (LCP) buildings in China. Moreover, this policy set provides a good basis for further developing the energy consumption quota system, which is expected to play an important role in stimulating the target formulation of a 5% reduction in total energy consumption within the building sector, which will be released in the next 2 years (Zhou et al., 2011).