What is Energize Denver?
Energize Denver is the City and County of Denver program requiring commercial and multifamily buildings of 5,000 square feet or more to benchmark and, depending on size, meet energy performance requirements.
Which Denver buildings are covered
Buildings of 25,000 square feet and larger must reach a site EUI target set by property type. Buildings of 5,000 to 24,999 square feet follow separate requirements phased by size, ending December 31, 2029 for the 5,000 to 9,999 square foot group. Manufacturing, agricultural and industrial buildings have their own path.
Targets and penalties under the current rules
- The Energize Denver Rules took effect August 27, 2026, after a public hearing on August 10.
- The final site EUI target for offices is 48.3 kBtu per square foot per year (Rules, Table 1).
- No building has to cut weather-normalized site EUI by more than 42 percent from its baseline year.
- A timeline extension moves the first target to 2028, drops the 2027 target and moves the final target to 2032.
- Civil penalties reach up to $0.15, $0.23 or $0.35 per kBtu of required reduction not achieved, depending on how many target years apply.
Tracking the kBtu shortfall each month
Denver judges a building on annual site energy in kBtu. aQ EnergySmart reads electricity and gas, with gas in therms or cubic meters, against a weather-normalized expected baseline, so the shortfall shows up monthly. Feeder sub-metering then tells whether HVAC, lighting or plug load carries most of it.