§ 8-2002. Definitions.

The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

Atlanta Building identification number means a randomly-generated identification number that is stable and specific to a covered property.

Audit report means the final document produced by the energy auditor including but not limited to:

(a)

The summary audit report,

(b)

Base building systems and equipment inventory,

(c)

All reasonable measures, including capital improvements, that would, if implemented, reduce energy and water use and/or the cost of operating the building,

(d)

For each measure, the associated annual energy or water savings, the cost to implement, the net present value, and the simple payback, calculated by a method determined by the department,

(e)

A list of recommended measures, chosen from among the measures, analyzed, and the interactive savings predicted from that package of measures,

(f)

The building's benchmarking submission for the previous calendar year consistent with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Portfolio Manager tool or as otherwise established by the department,

(g)

Reporting of energy usage by system and predicted energy savings by system after implementation of the recommended measures, and

(h)

Reporting of water usage by system and predicted water savings by system after implementation of the recommended measures.

(i)

A general assessment of how the major energy and water consuming equipment and systems used within tenant spaces impact the energy and water consumption of the base building systems and narratives, photographs and any additional explanatory information as required to describe the results of the audit.

Base building systems means the systems or subsystems of a building that use or distribute energy and/or water and/or impact energy and/or water consumption, including:

(a)

The building envelope,

(b)

The HVAC (heating ventilating and air conditioning) systems,

(c)

Conveying systems,

(d)

Electrical and lighting systems,

(e)

Domestic hot water systems,

(f)

Water distribution systems,

(g)

Plumbing fixtures and other water-using equipment, and

(h)

Landscape irrigation systems and fountains:

EXCEPTION: Base building systems shall not include:

(i)

Systems or subsystems owned by residential tenants, condominium unit owners or cooperative unit shareholders, or a system or subsystems for which such residential tenants, condominium unit owners or cooperative unit shareholders bear full maintenance responsibility and that is within the residential tenant's, condominium unit owner's or cooperative unit shareholder's leased or owned space and/or exclusively serves such leased or owned space.

(ii)

Systems or subsystems within a residential tenant's leased space and/or which exclusively serve such leased space and for which the tenant pays all the energy bills according to usage and demand as measured by a meter or sub-meter.

(iii)

Systems or subsystems owned by a non-residential tenant or for which a non-residential tenant bears full maintenance responsibility; and that is within the tenant's leased space and/or exclusively serves such leased space; and for which the tenant pays all the energy bills according to usage and demand as measured by a meter or sub-meter.

(iv)

Industrial processes.

Benchmark means to input and submit the total energy and water consumed for a property for the previous calendar year and other descriptive information for such property as required by the benchmarking tool. Total energy and water consumption shall not include separately metered uses that are not integral to building operations, such as broadcast antennas and electric vehicle charging stations, as determined by the department.

Benchmarking submission means a subset of:

(a)

Information input into the benchmarking tool; and

(b)

Benchmarking information generated by the benchmarking tool, as determined by the department.

Benchmarking tool means the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, or any other alternative benchmarking tool approved by the department as materially equivalent to ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. The department shall establish written guidelines for the approval application process.

Building management system means a computer-based system that monitors and controls a building's mechanical and electrical equipment, such as HVAC, lighting, power, fire, and security systems.

City means the City of Atlanta.

Covered city property means a property

(a)

That, for the purposes of benchmarking and disclosure, has one or more buildings that together exceed 10,000 gross square feet in total combined floor area; or

(b)

That, for the purposes of energy audits and retro-commissioning, has one or more buildings that exceed 25,000 gross square feet in total combined floor area; and

(c)

That is owned by the city; and

(d)

For which the city regularly pays all or part of the annual energy bills.

Covered non-city property means a property, other than covered city property,

(a)

That is classified under State of Georgia Property Codes as Class C, E, P, or V; and,

(b)

That, for the purposes of benchmarking and disclosure, has one or more buildings that together exceed 50,000 gross square feet in total combined floor area; or

(c)

That has one or more buildings held in the condominium form of ownership that is governed by the same board of directors and that exceeds 50,000 gross square feet in total combined floor area; and

(d)

That, for the purposes of energy audits and retro-commissioning, has one or more buildings that together exceed 50,000 gross square feet in total combined floor area; or

(e)

That has one or more buildings held in the condominium form of ownership that is governed by the same board of directors and that exceeds 50,000 gross square feet in combined floor area, or

(f)

That, after January 1, 2017, meets the criteria set forth in parts a-e of the definition of a covered non-city property, but exceeds 25,000 gross square feet in total combined floor area.

Covered property means any covered city property or covered non-city property.

Current facility requirements means the owner's current operational needs and requirements for a building, including temperature and humidity set points, operating Hours, filtration, and any integrated requirements such as controls, warranty review, and service contract review.

Data aggregation services means services provided by a utility to collect and aggregate the utility data of individually-metered space within a property into one property-wide consumption value.

Department means the office of resilience or the Chief Resilience Officer's designee, so long as said designee is an employee of the City of Atlanta.

Director means the director of the office of buildings or the director's designee, so long as said designee is an employee of the City of Atlanta.

Disclosed benchmarking information means information generated by the benchmarking tool or other means and descriptive information about the physical property and its operational characteristics, that is disclosed to the public. The information shall include, but need not be limited to:

(a)

Descriptive information:

i.

Property address;

ii.

Primary use type;

iii.

Gross floor area as defined by ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager's glossary;

(b)

Output information:

i.

Site energy use intensity (Site EUI);

ii.

Weather normalized site energy use intensity (Site EUI);

iii.

Total annual greenhouse gas emissions;

iv.

Water use per gross square foot;

v.

The ENERGY STAR score, where available; and

(c)

Compliance or noncompliance with this ordinance.

Energy means electricity, natural gas, steam, heating oil, or other product sold by a utility to a customer of a property, or on-site electricity generation, for purposes of providing heating, cooling, lighting, water heating, or for powering or fueling other end-uses captured by ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager.

Energy and water audit or audit means a systematic process of identifying and developing modifications and improvements of the base building systems, including but not limited to alterations of such systems and the installation of new equipment, insulation or other generally recognized energy and water efficiency technologies to optimize energy and water use performance of the building and achieve energy and water savings, provided that such process shall be at least as stringent as or comparable to the Level II Energy Survey and Engineering Analysis of the most recent edition of Procedures for Commercial Building Energy Audits published by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers Inc. (ASHRAE). No-cost/reduced cost energy audits provided for commercial customers that approximate the standard required under this definition of an energy audit shall qualify for compliance with the energy audit requirements of Article J, as determined by the department. Water audits shall not be required until the calendar year after the department determines that appropriate standards and certifications exist and must utilize the procedure for new rules detailed in section 8-2235.

Energy auditor means an individual possessing one or more certification(s) as follows:

(a)

A registered architect, professional engineer, or certified energy manager with two or more years of auditing experience;

(b)

An individual with auditing certification(s) from the Association of Energy Engineers, the Associated Air Balance Council, or the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers with two or more years of auditing experience;

(c)

An individual or firm with five or more years of auditing experience;

(d)

An individual with the certifications described in (a) or (b) with two or more years of building energy management experience in the building undertaking an energy audit.

Individuals possessing said certifications may perform or directly supervise individuals performing energy audits and certify audit reports required by this article. After the establishment of a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-recognized standard, the department may adopt the qualifications of the DOE-recognized standard with modifications as the department deems to be appropriate.

Energy management system means a system incorporating interior temperature sensors and a central processing unit and controls, which are used to monitor and control gas, steam and oil usage, as is applicable.

ENERGY STAR score means the one—100 numeric rating generated by the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager tool.

ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager means the tool developed and maintained by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to track and assess the relative energy performance of buildings nationwide.

Financial hardship (of a property) means a property that:

(a)

Had arrears of property taxes or water or wastewater charges that resulted in the property's inclusion, within two years prior to the due date of a summary audit report, on the City of Atlanta Department of Finance's annual tax lien sale list;

(b)

Has a court appointed receiver in control of the asset due to financial distress;

(c)

Is owned by a financial institution through default by the borrower:

(d)

Has been acquired by a deed in lieu of foreclosure; or

(e)

Has a senior mortgage subject to a notice of default.

Master meter means a single meter that records energy or water consumption for an entire building.

Net present value means the value in today's dollars of all future costs and benefits from an investment over a twenty year time horizon or the lifetime of the equipment, whichever is shorter, analyzed with a three percent discount rate per United States Office of Management and Budget Circular A-4 guidance.

Ongoing commissioning means an ongoing process of comparing data obtained through the building management system with analytic models; identifying problematic sensors, controls and equipment; and resolving operating problems, optimizing energy use and identifying retrofits for existing buildings.

Owner means any of the following:

(a)

An individual or entity possessing title to a covered property or covered city property;

(b)

The net lessee in the case of a property subject to a triple net lease that is the single tenant, regardless of tax parcel ownership;

(c)

The net lessee in the case of a building subject to a net lease with a term of at least 49 years, inclusive of all renewal options;

(d)

The board of directors in the case of a condominium;

(e)

The board of directors in the case of a cooperative apartment corporation; or

(f)

An agent authorized to act on behalf of any of the above.

Property means the tax parcel as designated by the appropriate county agency.

Registered design professional means a professional engineer, registered architect, or an individual or entity possessing other credentials approved by the department.

Rentable floor area means the combined leasable or occupant space of a property as defined by the current and appropriate version of the ANSI/BOMA Z65 Standard Methods of Measurement that is applicable to the buildings on said property.

Retro-commissioning means a process that systematically identifies and corrects building system problems to achieve optimal building performance. This includes planning, investigation, implementation, evaluation, and documenting that the facility and/or its systems and assemblies are operated, maintained, and tuned to improve building performance.

Retro-commissioning measure means a correction that has been identified during the analysis phase of retro-commissioning.

Retro-commissioning professional means an individual authorized by the department to certify retro-commissioning reports required by this article. Until such time as there is a U.S. Department of Energy ("DOE")-recognized standard establishing qualifications for persons who perform retro-commissioning and such standard has been adopted by the department, a retro-commissioning professional or member(s) of the team such professional supervises shall meet at least one of the following qualifications:

(a)

Professional engineer, registered architect, or certified energy manager with two or more years of commissioning experience;

(b)

Hold certification(s) with the Associated Air Balance Council, National Environmental Balancing Bureau, Association of Energy Engineers, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, or the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers as a commissioning authority with two or more years of commissioning experience;

(c)

An individual or a firm with five or more years of commissioning experience.

(d)

An individual with the certifications described in (a) or (b) with two or more years of building energy management experience in the building undertaking retro-commissioning.

After the establishment of such a DOE-recognized standard, the department may adopt the qualifications of the DOE-recognized standard with such modifications as the department deems to be appropriate.

Retro-commissioning report means the final document produced by the retro-commissioning professional including but not limited to:

(a)

Summary retro-commissioning report,

(b)

Benchmarking output,

(c)

Building staff information,

(d)

List of repairs completed during investigation,

(e)

List of deficiencies corrected, including, for each deficiency, the date corrected, by whom the correction was made, the actual cost, projected annual savings, the net present value, and simple payback for each measure,

(f)

Testing protocol, including a list of all equipment types tested, a list of the sample rates (percent of each type of equipment tested) for each equipment type tested, the testing methodology, including any diagnostic equipment used, and the test results, and a list of integrated system testing performed, and

(g)

Master list of findings, including for each, the name of the retro-commissioning measure, a brief description of the measure, recommended corrections, the benefits attained, estimated annual savings (energy and cost), the estimated implementation cost, the net present value, and the simple payback.

Simple payback means the number of years for the projected annual energy savings to equal the amount invested in the energy conservation measure, as determined by dividing the investment by the annual energy savings.

Space means an area within a building enclosed by floor to ceiling walls, partitions, windows and doors.

Substantial improvement means any repair, reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, or improvement of a property, the cost of which equals or exceeds 50 percent of the market value of the property before the improvement or repair is started.

Summary audit report means the abbreviated report certified by the energy auditor on a form determined by the department that shall include at a minimum:

(a)

Information on the energy auditor and his/her team,

(b)

The date the audit was completed,

(c)

Property information (such as building address, building age, gross floor area as defined by ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager's glossary, number of buildings on the property, etc.).

(d)

The total number of identified recommended measures, the estimated sum of total installed costs and the estimated value of savings from the implementation of said measures.

Summary retro-commissioning report means the abbreviated report certified by the retro-commissioning professional on a form determined by the department that shall include at a minimum:

(a)

Retro-commissioning team information,

(b)

The date the retro-commissioning was completed,

(c)

Property information (such as building address, building age, gross floor area as defined by ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager's glossary, number of buildings on the property, etc.),

(d)

The total number of identified recommended measures, the estimated sum of total installed costs and the estimated value of savings from the implementation of said measures.

System or subsystem means a building assembly made up of various components that serve a specific function including but not limited to exterior walls, windows, doors, roofs, ceilings, floors, lighting, piping, ductwork, insulation, HVAC system equipment or components, electrical appliances and plumbing appliances.

Tenant means a person or entity occupying or holding possession of a building, part of a building or premises pursuant to a rental agreement, contract lease, or license agreement for the rental or use of the real property;

Utility means an entity that distributes and sells natural gas, electric, oil or thermal energy services for buildings.

Water auditor means an individual possessing such credentials as determined by the department to perform or directly supervise individuals performing water audits and to certify audit reports required by this article.

( Ord. No. 2015-16(15-O-1101), § 1, 4-21-15 ; Ord. No. 2017-45(17-O-1424), § 2, 7-26-17 )