Sec. 1805. Smart buildings

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In this section: The term frontline community means a community with significant representation of communities of color, low-income communities, or Tribal and indigenous communities, that experiences, or is at risk of experiencing, higher or more adverse human health or environmental effects. The term Secretary means the Secretary of Energy. The term smart building means a building, or collection of buildings, with an energy system that— is flexible and automated in its energy demand and usage in response to changes associated with the environment, occupant behaviors, building conditions, and other events; has monitoring, diagnostics, control, and communication connectivity that enables analysis and control of energy consumption and generation; has a systems-based approach to integrating the overall building operations for control of energy demand, generation, and storage; has the ability to share information with utilities or other third-party entities, as appropriate in order to coordinate building energy assets to support energy system reliability and resilience; supports the health and safety of occupants; or incorporates cybersecurity protections.

Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall, in consultation with the Administrator of General Services, establish a program to be known as the Federal Smart Building Program — to implement smart building technology; and to demonstrate the costs and benefits of smart buildings. The Secretary shall coordinate the selection of not fewer than 1 building from among each of several key Federal agencies, as described in paragraph (4), to compose an appropriately diverse set of smart buildings based on size, type, and geographic location.

In making selections under subparagraph (A), the Secretary may include buildings that are owned by the Federal Government but are commercially operated. Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall establish targets for the number of smart buildings to be commissioned and evaluated by key Federal agencies by 3 years and 6 years after the date of enactment of this Act. The key Federal agencies referred to paragraph (2)(A) shall include buildings operated by— the Department of the Army; the Department of the Navy; the Department of the Air Force; the Department of Energy; the Department of the Interior; the Department of Veterans Affairs; and the General Services Administration.

In implementing the program established under this subsection, the Secretary shall leverage existing financing mechanisms, including energy savings performance contracts, utility energy service contracts, and annual appropriations. Using the guidelines of the Federal Energy Management Program relating to whole-building evaluation, measurement, and verification, the Secretary shall evaluate the costs and benefits of the buildings selected under paragraph (2), including an identification of— which advanced building technologies— are most cost-effective; and show the most promise for— increasing building energy savings; increasing service performance to building occupants; reducing environmental impacts; and establishing cybersecurity; and any other information the Secretary determines to be appropriate.

The Secretary may expand awards made under the Federal Energy Management Program and the Better Building Challenge to recognize specific agency achievements in accelerating the adoption of smart building technologies. The Secretary shall conduct a survey of privately owned smart buildings throughout the United States, including commercial buildings, laboratory facilities, hospitals, multifamily residential buildings, and buildings owned by nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher education.

From among the smart buildings surveyed under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall select not fewer than 1 building each from an appropriate range of building sizes, types, and geographic locations. Using the guidelines of the Federal Energy Management Program relating to whole-building evaluation, measurement, and verification, the Secretary shall evaluate the costs and benefits of the buildings selected under paragraph (2), including an identification of— which advanced building technologies and systems— are most cost-effective; and show the most promise for— increasing building energy savings; increasing service performance to building occupants; reducing environmental impacts; and establishing cybersecurity; and any other information the Secretary determines to be appropriate.

The Secretary shall carry out a program to provide technical assistance for entities to set and achieve goals to improve energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and emissions of other pollutants, and reduce embodied carbon in commercial and residential buildings through the commercial application of relevant tools and technologies. In carrying out this program, the Secretary shall— identify opportunities for optimizing energy efficiency, demand management, and increasing emissions reductions in buildings to achieve net-zero energy or energy-generating buildings, including through electrification; promote the commercial application of emerging concepts and technologies in buildings; share best practices from successful projects; and ensure a diversity of entities receive technical assistance, including low-income and rural communities.

In carrying out the program under subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall develop smart building accelerators that will demonstrate innovative policies and approaches to accelerate the transition to smart buildings in the public, institutional, laboratory, industrial, commercial, and residential sectors, including in rural, low-income, and multi-family housing. The Secretary shall carry out a research, development, and demonstration program on tools, technologies, and techniques to reduce energy use and emissions in new and existing residential buildings, in partnership with industry entities.

Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall establish a program of research, development, demonstration, and commercial application to develop cost-effective tools, technologies, and practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or other pollutants from, increase the energy efficiency of, and increase beneficial electrification of new and existing commercial and residential buildings, including retrofits and electrification of existing buildings, rural housing, low-income housing, multi-family housing, and manufactured housing.

The Secretary shall carry out research to identify barriers to and strategies for expanding the use of low-emissions and energy-efficient building technologies and appliances in the buildings where members of frontline communities live and work. Research topics covered under this subparagraph may include— barriers to the use of technologies developed under this subsection in rural, low-income, and multi-family housing; causes of and solutions for inequitable energy costs in residential buildings based on race or class; and solutions that enable energy-efficient homes while keeping housing affordable for low-income communities.

The Secretary shall support research and analysis to identify non-technical barriers, and methods to address such barriers, to enable greater use of tools and technologies developed under this subsection in new and existing commercial and residential buildings, including rural housing, low-income housing, and multi-family housing. As part of the program established under subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall support research and development on technologies and methodologies to enable advanced building design, construction techniques, and retrofits.

In supporting research and development under subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall— include considerations of a full lifecycle analysis during building design, manufacturing, and construction, including environmental considerations, embodied energy and embodied carbon in building materials, transportation of materials, and implications for final disposal and recycling; incorporate principles of resilient building design and construction through the consideration of regional differences in— climate, season, temperature, and precipitation in consultation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and fuel mix and energy production, including through the development of vulnerability assessments and analysis of building resilience for proposed building designs, building sites, or existing buildings; support research and development on the use of various potential energy sources and distributed generation to supply cooling, heating, and power for buildings, including integrated and adaptive control solutions that address traditional building energy management and emerging technologies, such as batteries, thermal storage, and combined heat and power, compatible with all sizes of buildings; support the development and integration of technologies that enable low-emissions and energy-efficient or advanced buildings, such as heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration systems and other appliances that are cost-competitive over the life of the product as compared to conventional technologies and that incorporate considerations of retrofitting and ease of installation, using a whole-systems and whole-buildings approach; support the development and integration of cost-effective next-generation window and building envelope technologies that incorporate considerations of retrofitting and ease of installation; support development of alternative working fluids and refrigerants for use in buildings equipment to reduce their impact on climate change; and research methods to enhance comfort and health of individual occupants in buildings that also result in improved energy efficiency and emissions reductions, including indoor air pollution.

As part of the program established under subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall support research and development to enable components of commercial and residential buildings to serve as dynamic energy loads and energy resources to enable smart building designs. In particular, the Secretary shall focus on the development of— advanced building energy management systems through the integration of sensors and advanced control technologies and systems that allow whole-building optimization and integration with other energy systems, including photovoltaics, electric vehicles, and energy storage technologies such as thermal storage; cost-effective sensors that enable monitoring of building conditions and energy load, including, as appropriate, reporting energy use and forecasting energy needs; improved analysis of data on the energy use of devices connected to buildings, including miscellaneous electric loads; advanced control technologies and systems that enable flexible operation of building components and that are capable of coordinating and executing energy control commands in response to signals from the electric grid; flexible building components capable of reporting and modulating energy use in response to control commands, as appropriate; data analysis and communication protocols to further systems integration, interoperability, and automation; building energy storage capabilities to modulate peak and off-peak energy demand; distributed energy resources at the community- and building-level through localized electric grids; technologies to reduce energy use and emissions in connected communities and neighborhoods located in a variety of climates, including by enabling transactive energy concepts; and cybersecurity practices that protect privacy and personally identifiable information.

As part of the program established under subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall support the development of building models, including for the design and operation of buildings, and the analysis of relevant data to enable smart buildings. In particular, the Secretary shall focus on the development of— advanced modeling capabilities that include modeling of grid interactivity, resilience, and relevant behavioral, community-scale, and urban-scale activities in order to— provide system-level analysis of new technologies, including distributed generation and storage; evaluate system benefits such as emissions reductions, community resilience, distribution grid reliability, and service to underserved communities; provide data, derived from both simulation and demonstration projects established under subparagraph (G), to inform decision support and new business models; and automated methods to generate models of proposed or existing buildings; methods to address barriers, including non-technical barriers, to commercial application of building models for building operation; methods to analyze data collected by technologies in smart buildings and collections of buildings; artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches to building energy management; and advanced data collection and monitoring methods for utilities at the building level and component level.

The Secretary shall establish a competitive grant program for the demonstration of advanced building technologies and systems developed under the program established under subparagraph

(A)that— focuses on a range of new and existing building types, including low-income housing, rural housing and agricultural buildings, multi-family residential buildings, manufactured housing, and small and medium-sized commercial buildings; and includes community-scale demonstration projects. In carrying out the program under subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall— support testing and validation activities to improve the commercial application of relevant tools, technologies, and methods, including the use of testbeds to determine cost savings and performance in realistic scenarios; and support analysis, testing, and validation to accurately determine energy savings, emissions reductions, cost-savings, and other potential impacts of the highest-performing appliances that are commercially available. In carrying out the activities authorized in this subsection, the Secretary shall work with utilities, State and local energy offices, building owners, technology developers, contractors, building developers, and other relevant entities to guide the focus areas of the activities of the program carried out under subparagraph

(A)and to encourage the commercial application of these technologies by building owners, operators, developers, occupants, contractors, or other relevant entities. In carrying out this subsection, the Secretary shall coordinate across all relevant program offices at the Department of Energy, including the Office of Electricity, the Advanced Manufacturing Office, the Vehicle Technologies Office, the Geothermal Technologies Office, and the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response. Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, and every 2 years thereafter until a total of 3 reports have been made, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives a report on— the establishment of the Federal Smart Building Program and the evaluation of Federal smart buildings under subsection (b); the survey and evaluation of private sector smart buildings under subsection (c); and any recommendations of the Secretary to further accelerate the transition to smart buildings.