energy performance forensics
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energy performance forensics

Your Building’s Utility Bills Are Telling a Story. We Find Out What It’s Saying.

A targeted alternative to the traditional energy audit.

Energy rates keep climbing, and your building’s consumption may be climbing faster than it should. Maybe the bills jumped and nobody knows why. Maybe a building uses far more than its peers. Or maybe a BEPS target is approaching and you need to know where the waste is hiding.

Energy Performance Forensics is SBP’s diagnostic service for existing buildings. We dig into your utility data, systems, and operations to find what’s driving cost, then work with your team on practical, non-invasive fixes that fit your budget.

The Problem

Commercial energy costs across the DMV have undergone a structural shift, not a temporary spike. For some of our DC clients, rates have climbed from $0.12/kWh in 2020 to over $0.28/kWh today, an increase of more than 130%. Maryland is up 52% and Virginia 25% [add source and date]. For a 50,000 SF office building, that can mean going from $90K per year to $210K or more in electricity costs: same building, same systems, more than double the bill.

Owners in DC, Maryland, and Montgomery County face added pressure from Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS), which tie compliance to actual measured performance.

Being modeled, commissioned, and certified doesn’t guarantee a building is operating as designed. Controls get overridden. Occupancy changes. Maintenance gets deferred. Buildings drift, and eventually the utility bills tell the real story.

What’s missing is a clear diagnosis of where performance has slipped and a direct path to closing the gap. Most traditional audits aren’t built to answer that question.

Our Approach: The Right Tool for the Question

Every building has its own story, so we don’t run the same playbook on every project. We choose from a broad toolkit based on what the building’s data is telling us, which may include:

  • Utility and interval data analysis to spot baseload creep, demand spikes, and unexpected shifts in usage
  • Weather normalization and benchmarking to separate real problems from weather noise and compare against similar buildings
  • BAS and trend log review to catch schedule drift, simultaneous heating and cooling, overridden setpoints, and control sequences that no longer match intent
  • Targeted field observations and spot measurements to confirm what the data suggests
  • Thermal imaging and airtightness testing when envelope-related loads are a suspect
  • Calibrated energy modeling, used when it’s the best way to isolate a cause or test a fix, not as a default

The tools serve the investigation. The goal is always an answer.

How It Works

We scope each project to match the question you’re asking. Most follow three phases, and you can stop after any of them.

1. Diagnose
We analyze your utility data and operations to find the anomaly or cost driver. You receive a concise findings brief explaining what’s happening, why, and which quick wins are available.

2. Plan
If you’re ready to act, we build a ranked, costed action list with estimated savings and simple payback, along with an implementation-ready scope your facilities team or contractor can use immediately. Measures are selected with your input, so the list reflects what can actually be implemented.

3. Follow Through
We stay involved to help make sure measures are implemented correctly, then measure the impact so you can see the results in your bills.

What We Look For

  • Equipment running when and where it shouldn’t
  • Control and scheduling issues that crept in after tenant changes, renovations, or staffing turnover
  • Mechanical systems that have drifted from design intent
  • Simultaneous heating and cooling, excess ventilation, and reheat waste
  • Demand charge and rate structure issues
  • Envelope and infiltration-related loads
  • Metering, billing, and data errors
  • For designed or certified buildings, a clear accounting of why actual performance diverges from modeled intent

How Is This Different From an Energy Audit?

A full ASHRAE-style audit is a valuable tool, and for some buildings it’s exactly the right move, especially for BEPS documentation, grant applications, and specific program requirements. But it isn’t always the right first move. Comprehensive audits take time and budget, and they answer a broader question than many owners are asking.

Energy Performance Forensics is built for the narrower, more urgent question: “Why is this building costing so much, and what can we do about it?”

  • Focused, not exhaustive. We target the cost driver, not every system and measure in the building.
  • Practical, not padded. No filler sections and no measures added just to fill a scope. You get a concise brief and an action list, not a 100-page report.
  • A smart first step. Sometimes the findings are all you need. Other times they lead into a [full ASHRAE audit], a capital planning effort, or a broader BEPS strategy, and you’ll know exactly where to focus and why.

If you need a full ASHRAE deliverable, we’ll tell you.

Built for Today’s Owners

BEPS compliance. If your building is subject to a Building Energy Performance Standard, understanding why it performs the way it does is the first step to closing the gap. Our findings give you clear guidance to help inform a broader BEPS study.

Operating cost control. You don’t need a mandate to care about waste. With energy costs rising year after year, finding and fixing inefficiencies is one of the most direct ways to protect your NOI.

Who Is This For?

  • Building owners watching utility costs escalate without explanation
  • Asset managers with properties that never hit projected operating budgets
  • Facilities teams frustrated by prior audits that gathered dust
  • LEED and ENERGY STAR certified buildings underperforming their targets
  • Owners navigating BEPS requirements in DC, Maryland, or Montgomery County