December 21, 2009

On December 17, 2009 the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approved the following changes to the Custom Measures component of NJ SmartStart Buildings Program which will be effective February 1, 2010. Customers have until January 31, 2010 to submit a complete application package under the existing program terms. A properly completed application package includes an application completed and signed by the customer, custom project data sheet, cost and energy savings calculations, a project summary describing existing conditions/equipment and proposed custom technology, a W9 form for the Payee, 12 months of electric and/or gas utility bills including any third party supplier invoices, and equipment manufacturer specifications documents.This information must be submitted to the Market Manager before equipment is installed.

Customers that have previously submitted an incomplete package will have until January 29^th  to submit any missing documentation. Customers with pending applications that are still incomplete as of February 1 will need to reapply using the new applications as their existing applications will be canceled.

The Custom Screening Tool will be replaced by a performance-based method with set incentive levels. The incentive levels have been designed to cover approximately 15-20% of total installed project costs.

• To be eligible, projects must have a minimum first-year energy savings of 75,000 kWh for custom electric measures or 1,500 therms for custom gas measures.
• Established incentive caps will be the lesser of 1) a set value of $0.16/kWh and $1.60/therm based on estimated annual savings, 2) 50% of the total installed project cost or 3) "buy down" to a one-year payback.
• Custom Measure applicants will be provided with program spreadsheets to be used for reporting measure savings and cost-effectiveness calculations including Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and project payback (with and without incentives).
• The baseline for retrofit projects will be existing conditions. Custom measures for retrofit projects must exceed ASHRAE 90.1-2004 standards by at least 2% where specific standards exist. Where ASHRAE guidelines do not apply, measures will be required to exceed industry standards as determined by the Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE), EPA's ENERGY STAR®, and/or others. New construction and complete "gut-rehab" projects will use ASHRAE 90.1-2004 as the baseline for estimating energy savings.

Additional documentation will be required upon project completion confirming that measures were installed as proposed and that any changes during installation are reflected in final savings calculations.

• Certain measures may require post-installation metering, trending analysis, and/or a Statement of Substantial Completion by the installing contractor.
• All projects where estimated incentives are at least $25,000 will require pre and post inspection. Projects with incentives below $25,000 will be inspected at random.