EDF’s Investor Confidence Project Brings Cutting Edge Energy Efficiency to New Jersey

(TRENTON – February 2, 2016) Environmental Defense Fund’s Investor Confidence Project (ICP) today announced the launch of a new pilot program with the New Jersey Board of Utilities (BPU) that could dramatically scale-up private investment in energy efficiency in buildings and change the way the market for energy efficiency functions. The pilot makes New Jersey the first state to bring ICP’s market-based approach to energy efficiency into an existing state efficiency incentive program.

EDF’s Investor Confidence Project and its Investor Ready Energy Efficiency^TM (IREE) Certification brings rigorous measurement and verification metrics to energy efficiency retrofit projects, standardizing the way such projects are developed and brought to market — and making them more attractive to investors and building owners alike. ICP projects in other states are at the forefront of a growing trend toward greater performance certainty. 

“New Jersey has long been a leader in clean energy, and was one of the first states in the U.S. to fully grasp the value of solar power,” said Mary Barber, EDF Director, New Jersey Clean Energy. “With the adoption of ICP’s Investor Ready Energy Efficiency, we’re seeing that kind of leadership again.  What New Jersey is doing with ICP and energy efficiency has the potential to help transform energy markets across the United States.”

“I want to thank the Environmental Defense Fund’s staff for working with us to develop investor ready protocols for energy efficiency projects,” said Richard S. Mroz, President of the N.J. Board of Public Utilities. “We encourage commercial and industrial businesses to take their energy-efficiency commitments to the next level by choosing to participate in the pilot program when applying to New Jersey’s Clean Energy Program’s Pay for Performance program. By incorporating the Investor Confidence Project protocols, participants will receive greater financial incentives as well as peace of mind as their projects achieve energy savings that justify their up-front investments.”

Buildings use nearly 40 percent of all energy in the U.S.; efforts to improve their efficiency is key to a clean energy future. Existing programs to save energy have demonstrated their ability to create local jobs, cut pollution, and save money, but for many years, such efforts have struggled to capture the full scale of the opportunity.

The New Jersey Clean Energy Program’s pilot will incorporate the Investor Confidence Project’s energy efficiency protocols into the state’s Pay for Performance (P4P) program. The P4P pilot introduces ICP’s IREE^TM projects as an alternative way for buildings to meet the pay-for-performance requirements.

One of the goals of the pilot is to assemble data over three years of participation that will provide project developers and the New Jersey Clean Energy Program with new information regarding project performance over an extended period of time; crucial information to ensure that the predicted energy and environmental benefits are achieved and maintained.

For more information on the Investor Confidence Project, visit www.EEperformance.org.