§36-41 Energy retrofit and performance contracting for public facilities. (a) All agencies shall evaluate and identify for implementation energy efficiency retrofitting through performance contracting. Agencies that perform energy efficiency retrofitting may continue to receive budget appropriations for energy expenditures at an amount that shall not fall below the pre-retrofitting energy budget but shall rise in proportion to any increase in the agency's overall budget for the duration of the performance contract or project payment term.

(b) Any agency may enter into a multi-year energy performance contract for the purpose of undertaking or implementing energy conservation or alternate energy measures in a facility or facilities. An energy performance contract may include but shall not be limited to financing options such as leasing, lease-purchase, financing agreements, third-party joint ventures, guaranteed-savings plans, or energy service contracts, or any combination thereof; provided that in due course the agency may receive title to the energy system being financed. Except as otherwise provided by law, the agency that is responsible for a particular facility shall review and approve energy performance contract arrangements for the facility.

(c) Notwithstanding any law to the contrary relating to the award of public contracts, any agency desiring to enter into an energy performance contract shall do so in accordance with the following provisions:

(1) The agency shall issue a public request for proposals, advertised in the same manner as provided in chapter 103D, concerning the provision of energy efficiency services or the design, installation, operation, and maintenance of energy equipment or both. The request for proposals shall contain terms and conditions relating to submission of proposals, evaluation and selection of proposals, financial terms, legal responsibilities, and other matters as may be required by law and as the agency determines appropriate;

(2) Upon receiving responses to the request for proposals, the agency may select the most qualified proposal or proposals on the basis of the experience and qualifications of the proposers, the technical approach, the financial arrangements, the overall benefits to the agency, and other factors determined by the agency to be relevant and appropriate;

(3) The agency thereafter may negotiate and enter into an energy performance contract with the person or company whose proposal is selected as the most qualified based on the criteria established by the agency;

(4) The term of any energy performance contract entered into pursuant to this section shall not exceed twenty years;

(5) Any contract entered into shall contain the following annual allocation dependency clause:

"The continuation of this contract is contingent upon the appropriation of funds to fulfill the requirements of the contract by the applicable funding authority. If that authority fails to appropriate sufficient funds to provide for the continuation of the contract, the contract shall terminate on the last day of the fiscal year for which allocations were made";

(6) Any energy performance contract may provide that the agency shall ultimately receive title to the energy system, vehicles, fleet vehicles, and fueling and charging infrastructure being financed under the contract;

(7) Any energy performance contract shall provide that total payments shall not exceed total savings; and

(8) For any guaranteed-savings plan:

(A) The payment obligation for each year of the contract, including the year of installation, shall be guaranteed by the private sector person or company to be less than the annual energy cost savings attributable under the contract to the energy equipment and services. Such guarantee, at the option of the agency, shall be a bond or insurance policy, or some other guarantee determined sufficient by the agency to provide a level of assurance similar to the level provided by a bond or insurance policy; and

(B) In the event that the actual annual verified savings are less than the annual amount guaranteed by the energy service company, the energy service company, within thirty days of being invoiced, shall pay the agency, or cause the agency to be paid, the difference between the guaranteed amount and the actual verified amount.

(d) For purposes of this section:

"Agency" means any executive department, independent commission, board, bureau, office, or other establishment of the State or any county government, the judiciary, the University of Hawaii, or any quasi-public institution that is supported in whole or in part by state or county funds.

"Energy performance contract" means an agreement for the provision of energy services and equipment, including but not limited to building or facility energy conservation enhancing retrofits, water saving technology retrofits, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and alternate energy technologies, in which a private sector person or company agrees to finance, design, construct, install, maintain, operate, or manage energy systems or equipment to improve the energy efficiency of, or produce energy in connection with, a facility or electric vehicle charging system in exchange for a portion of the cost savings, lease payments, or specified revenues, and the level of payments is made contingent upon the verified energy savings, energy production, avoided maintenance, avoided energy equipment replacement, avoided vehicle maintenance or fuel costs associated with the implementation of a vehicle fleet energy efficiency program pursuant to section 36-42, or any combination of the foregoing bases. Energy conservation retrofits also include energy saved off-site by water or other utility conservation enhancing retrofits.

"Facility" means a building, buildings, infrastructure, or similar structure, including any site owned or leased by, or otherwise under the jurisdiction or control of, the agency.

"Financing agreement" shall have the same meaning as in section 37D-2.

"Guaranteed-savings plan" means an agreement under which a private sector person or company undertakes to design, install, operate, and maintain improvements to an agency's facility or facilities and the agency agrees to pay a contractually specified amount of verified energy cost savings.

"Verified" means the technique used in the determination of baseline energy use, post-installation energy use, and energy and cost savings by the following measurement and verification techniques: engineering calculations, metering and monitoring, utility meter billing analysis, computer simulations, mathematical models, and agreed-upon stipulations by the customer and the energy service company. [L 1986, c 72, §1; am L 1989, c 275, §1; am L Sp 1993, c 8, §54; am L 1997, c 192, §1; am L 2000, c 158, §1; am L 2004, c 98, §1; am L 2019, c 144, §3]