Building Baselines with Tracy Narel
Today we sit down with Tracy Narel, former National Manager of C&I Solution Provider Partnerships at the EPA. In his 33 years with the agency, Tracy worked on ENERGY STAR® from day one, contributing to the program’s remarkable evolution from concept to globally-recognized standard. His work on partnerships with ENERGY STAR®’s Portfolio Manager® Application offered many of us – vendors, utilities, and policymakers alike – a chance to work with Tracy. He helped drive and enable what is now a standard, industry-wide awareness of buildings as efficiency targets.
As ENERGY STAR faces an uncertain future amid shifting political priorities and funding challenges, Tracy’s voice offers a realistic lens on what’s at stake and a reminder to keep our focus, even in chaotic, troubling times. While it IS aligned with market priorities and financial goals, efficiency work has never been just about dollars. It’s about serving the collective good, and it’s more important than ever that we remember what drives us to this work. Thank you, Tracy, for the example and the reminder. And for always finding the right T.S. Eliot quote.
“To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing; that is enough for one man’s life.” ~ T.S. Eliot
Colleen Morris, Calico Energy CEO
Can you tell us a little bit about your background, your work with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) / ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager®?
Well, let me start with the end of the story. On March 8th I retired from public service at EPA, a process I set in motion a year ago. I joined what is now known as the Climate Protection Partnerships Division 33 years ago in February 1992, 4 months before ENERGY STAR was announced to the world.
I witnessed how ENERGY STAR was transformed from one of three concepts on sheets of fax paper to the national and international brand it is today. My work was mostly focused on energy efficiency in commercial buildings. In the early 2000’s I started working with ENERGY STAR partners who were the solution providers in the market, the utilities, other rate-payer-funded programs and energy service providers. Much of my work with partners focused on promoting the importance of measuring whole-building energy performance in the design and delivery of programs and services for commercial buildings. EPA offers the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager (ESPM) tool to enable that measurement.
What changes over the last 30 years have been the most significant to the work you do?
The single biggest change has been the acceptance and proliferation of building energy performance as a key means for advancing energy efficiency in policy and programs. Thirty years ago, building performance was not something that people were talking about in the market. I believe a few thought leaders were contemplating building performance in conceptual terms. I think a lot of the early proposals were complicated and wouldn’t have lent themselves to the transactional needs of the market.
Today, that has dramatically changed. In a few key sectors, measuring and tracking energy performance has become standard industry practice, commercial real estate is the first to come to mind. And we are now seeing state and local policy focused on building performance.
When did you first start working on the issue of making utility data more accessible? Who was part of that work and how has it evolved?
Utility energy data is the lifeblood of building performance measurement. You can’t manage what you don’t measure, and you can’t measure without utility data. I first became focused on making utility data more accessible at the end of 2005. At that time the California Energy Commission (CEC) decided to proceed with using Portfolio Manager to benchmark state buildings to meet the requirements of the state’s Green Building initiative.
California utilities were collaborating with the state to get that done. And it was Peter Turnbull of PG&E who immediately saw the need to automate the process if the effort was to be successful at scale. Others soon came to the same conclusion and beginning in 2006 the state’s investor-owned utilities began working together with EPA to figure out how.
At the time, EPA had just wrapped up a pilot test of the first generation of Portfolio Manager web services. It was a very basic, bare bones set of schemas that was tailored to meet the needs of service providers in the market who were handling benchmarking for their clients. They were great for that purpose. However, the utilities immediately saw that they were missing key functionality. For example, they lacked a means of authenticating the party requesting that the utility release data into Portfolio Manager. That led to the development of the second generation of web services.
Fast forward, the work has evolved tremendously. Now, utilities across the country are using the ESPM web services to help their customers benchmark. More than 80 utilities are providing whole building energy data for benchmarking in ESPM, with nearly 70 using web services and the rest providing spreadsheets. And, EPA has needed to continue to evolve and improve the ENERGY STAR web services to keep pace with market demands.
What have you learned over the years that has impacted your views or approach?
A broad lesson I learned over the years is that the better EPA understood the business reality of its partners, the more successful we could be. I believe this absolutely holds true in the efforts that EPA and many other stakeholders are pursuing to have more utilities provide the building-level data needed for benchmarking and performance measurement.
We need to continue to improve our understanding of what is on the to-do lists of key utility staff. Then, we need to make the case in terms they understand that increasing data access to enable building performance measurement will help the utility meet its objectives.
Greater transparency would be transformative. Building owners could no longer hide behind data gaps. Tenants would gain agency through information. Communities could advocate based on evidence.
Let’s dream a bit. Tomorrow, you wake up and every utility can deliver a complete data set for the built world, including Affordable Housing / Multifamily buildings, when owners ask for it. Utility program owners can use it to empower and inform their programs. Customers and building owners can use it to make smarter decisions for their buildings. What else do you think is possible with this whole building data access?
What excites me most about a future with universal building data access from utilities is the contribution to energy equity and justice. For years, we’ve known that pollution and energy inefficiency disproportionately burden low-income communities and communities of color. Yet those who carry the greatest economic and environmental burden often do not have the data required to make themselves visible to policymakers and program designers. With comprehensive utility data, we could target assistance where it’s most needed. We could identify multifamily buildings with the highest energy burden per square foot and we could spot housing developments where residents are paying exorbitant rates for inefficient systems and prioritize them for upgrades.
Greater transparency would be transformative. Building owners could no longer hide behind data gaps. Tenants would gain agency through information. Communities could advocate based on evidence. And there are many additional benefits that are not being adequately considered in the current commercial building data access dialogue, including:
- Creating dynamic energy efficiency programs driven by actual performance rather than relying on theoretical models
- Developing neighborhood-level microgrids optimized for the measured consumption patterns of specific communities
- Valuing entire buildings as the grid assets they have the potential to be, recognizing their contribution to demand flexibility and grid stability
- Generating precise carbon footprints for every building, enabling truly effective carbon reduction strategies
- Designing financing mechanisms that accurately predict returns on clean energy investments
Where do you see the role of ENERGY STAR’s Utility Partnerships in the next five years?
If you are keeping up with the news, then you’re likely aware that the nature of EPA’s future work is uncertain and this work may not be continued at all. Regardless of the outcome of the proposed changes, I believe the crucial role of EPA remains unchanged in advancing utility data access. The agency provides critical, objective, technical advice to utilities developing data access services. Utilities themselves will tell you this. I believe it is critical to preserve this key activity of the program’s utility partnerships in the commercial buildings area.
How do you see things changing under the new administration?
At the time of my retirement on March 8th, no sweeping changes had yet been proposed that would have impacted the work we are talking about here. That has changed dramatically.
Beginning the afternoon of May 2nd, the administration began sharing proposed reorganization plans that would eliminate the work we are discussing here, and in fact would eliminate the entire ENERGY STAR program. As a result, all of EPA’s work in this area is at risk of being lost, with 19 years of public-private investment wasted.
Focusing just on utility data access, I think the proposed changes will have a severe negative impact on a broad range of stakeholders, including the utilities. Providing data to the ESPM tool is not the only use case for whole-building energy data, but it is currently the dominant one by far. If ESPM is no longer driving the market to provide whole-building data, then the overall business case for the data is greatly undermined.
At the state and local level, I expect building performance policies will continue to be advanced. Unfortunately, the utilities may not have EPA to depend on to provide the critical advice and support they have come to expect as they develop data access services. Not to mention the disappearance of Portfolio Manager as a universal data exchange platform.
Finally, what advice would you give to someone aspiring to work in environmental policy and partnerships?
Follow your heart and stay focused on your long-term contribution. If something within you is pulling you toward work to protect the environment and human health, then don’t be deterred by today’s news which might make you question the value of the work.
The climate crisis is real and a threat to future generations and the planet’s health and wellbeing. It is not a problem that can be solved with only half of society. We need everyone pushing in the same direction.
Finally, I’d underscore that there are a multitude of ways to contribute. Whatever someone’s passions and skills, I believe there is a way to contribute. For example, look at the topic of this interview – utility data. That’s not a topic that most would have at the top of their list of actions to address the climate crisis. Yet, the data is critical for advancing energy efficiency, which is widely recognized as foundational for climate protection solutions. We need people working on every aspect of the problem.
USGBC's Campaign to Protect ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager®
While we cannot predict what will happen next, we have the opportunity today to collectively voice our support for the ENERGY STAR program. Please join USGBC today to make your voice heard by Congress. Use the link below to learn more and reach out to publicpolicies@usgbc.org with any questions.
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