Focus on Energy - Commercial/Industrial Efficiency in New Construction

Summary

The Focus on Energy program offers a combination of technical assistance and financial incentives (design incentives, equipment rebates, and custom incentives) to support the construction of energy efficient commercial and industrial buildings. Incentives are available for the construction of a new facility; add-ons to existing facilities; and major renovations/gut rehabs. The program offers two separate tracks for participation: the systems track and the whole building track.

Under the systems track incentives are available for individual system and process improvements. These incentives take the form of fixed prescriptive incentives for specific equipment types that meet certain minimum energy efficiency standards, and custom incentives based on the estimated energy savings compared to a baseline building. Custom incentives for electricity and natural gas savings are broken down into two tiers based on the number of measure categories that are implemented. Prescriptive incentive applications of less than $25,000 do not require pre-approval. All larger prescriptive incentive requests and custom incentive requests require pre-approval from program personnel. This track is most appropriate for situations where the focus is on a particular system or piece of equipment, or where design work has already been completed but the building owner wishes to substitute the originally specified equipment with higher efficiency equipment.

Under the whole building incentive track, projects in the early design phase can qualify for incentives based on the percentage of energy cost improvement that a newly constructed building achieves over a standard reference building. In this track the design team and building owner work with Focus personnel to determine what energy efficiency features should be included in the new building. Focus personnel will conduct a post-installation verification inspection to make sure that all of the features used to calculate the amount of energy savings are installed and operational. In order to obtain an incentive, the project must achieve an improvement of at least 10% from the baseline.

Focus on Energy works with eligible Wisconsin residents and businesses to install cost effective energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. Focus information, resources and financial incentives help to implement projects that otherwise would not be completed, or to complete projects sooner than scheduled. Its efforts help Wisconsin residents and businesses manage rising energy costs, promote in-state economic development, protect our environment and control the state's growing demand for electricity and natural gas.

Please note that customer eligibility for Focus on Energy incentives is based on utility participation; interested individuals and companies should use the eligibility tool on the program web site to determine if their local utility participates in the Focus on Energy program. Further incentive details, applications, and other information are available at the program website.