What is EISA Section 432 and the Energy Act of 2020?
EISA Section 432, codified at 42 U.S.C. 8253(f), requires US federal agencies to evaluate, improve and benchmark the energy and water use of their largest facilities. The Energy Act of 2020 tightened it.
Which federal facilities are covered
Each agency designates covered facilities that together account for at least 75 percent of its total facility energy use, per DOE's Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP). Energy service companies and auditors working on those sites follow the same rules.
Cycle, deadlines and reporting
Every covered facility needs a comprehensive energy and water evaluation every four years. Agencies log progress, including annual benchmarking of metered buildings, in FEMP's EISA 432 Compliance Tracking System.
The Energy Act of 2020, signed on 27 December 2020, requires each life cycle cost-effective measure found in an evaluation to be implemented within two years of the evaluation's completion, and requires performance contracting for at least 50 percent of identified measures. DOE applies both rules to evaluations completed on or after that date.
The same act set 1 October 2022 as the date by which federal buildings had to be water metered, with advanced meters giving at least daily data.
What Aqueduct tracks inside the two-year window
An evaluation is a snapshot taken once in four years. Aqueduct keeps a weather-normalized baseline per covered building, regressed on cooling and heating degree days from 6 to 12 months of uploaded bills, so an energy manager can see whether a measure installed after the evaluation is actually holding. Daily water reads from sub-meters sit in the same view, ready to export for the tracking system.