DC BEPS is the District of Columbia's building performance standard, set under the Clean Energy DC Omnibus Act and enforced by DOEE. It compares each covered building's benchmarking result with a standard for its property type and requires underperformers to improve. See building performance standards.

Do buildings above the DC BEPS standard have work to do?

They keep benchmarking each year. Only buildings below the threshold for their property type take on the improvement requirement for the cycle, though owners near the line often monitor closely in case the next cycle's standard moves.

How is DC BEPS different from Local Law 97?

BEPS sets energy thresholds by property type and asks underperformers to improve. Local Law 97 caps emissions per square foot and charges for each ton over the cap. One measures energy performance, the other carbon, so the best measures can differ.

When does the next DC BEPS cycle start?

Start dates for later cycles have been revised before, so confirm the current schedule with DOEE before planning capital work around it. Meanwhile, keeping metered data and a measurement and verification record lets an owner show results whenever the next cycle opens.

Glossary

Building performance standards and benchmarking

What is DC BEPS?

Definition

DC BEPS, the Building Energy Performance Standards, requires covered Washington DC buildings below a minimum energy performance threshold for their property type to improve during multi-year compliance cycles.

Which DC buildings are in the first cycle

BEPS comes from Title III of the Clean Energy DC Omnibus Act of 2018 and is run by the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE). Cycle 1 covers privately owned buildings over 50,000 square feet and District-owned buildings over 10,000 square feet. Later cycles bring in smaller private buildings.

Cycle 1 dates from DOEE

Cycle 1 launched January 1, 2021 and ends December 31, 2026.
The final calendar year of energy data is due to DOEE in May 2027.
DOEE released version 1.2 of the Cycle 1 Compliance and Enforcement Guidebook in August 2026.
A Good Faith Effort framework, outlining possible reductions to compliance payments, is planned for late 2026.

Measuring a performance pathway result

Buildings on a performance pathway are judged on measured reduction across the cycle. Aqueduct compares post-project consumption with a regression baseline in its M&V view, and bill validation checks the consumption a utility states against the building's own sub-meter data before those figures go into Portfolio Manager.

What is DC BEPS?

Which DC buildings are in the first cycle

Cycle 1 dates from DOEE

Measuring a performance pathway result

DC BEPS: common questions

See Aqueduct on your own facility.