42 U.S.C. § 17064 — Smart building acceleration

(a) Definitions. (1) "Department" means the Department of Energy. (2) "Program" means the Federal Smart Building Program established under (b)(1). (3) "Secretary" means the Secretary of Energy. (4) "Smart building" means a building, or group of buildings, with an energy system that (A) is flexible and automated; (B) has extensive monitoring and communication allowing remote monitoring and analysis of every building function; (C) takes a systems-based approach to controlling energy generation, use, and storage across the building's overall operations; (D) communicates with utilities and outside commercial entities, if appropriate; (E) protects occupants' and workers' health and safety; and (F) uses cybersecurity best practices. (5) "Smart building accelerator" means an initiative designed to demonstrate specific, innovative policies and approaches, with clear goals and a clear timeline, that would accelerate energy-efficiency investment once it succeeds. (b) Federal Smart Building Program. (1) By December 27, 2021, the Secretary — working with the Administrator of General Services — must establish the "Federal Smart Building Program" to (A) implement smart building technology and (B) show the costs and benefits of smart buildings. (2) Selection. (A) The Secretary must coordinate selecting at least 1 building from among several key federal agencies (listed in (4)) to create an appropriately diverse set of smart buildings by size, type, and location. (B) The Secretary may include federally owned buildings that are commercially operated. (3) By June 27, 2022, the Secretary must set targets for how many smart buildings key agencies should commission and evaluate within 3 years and within 6 years of December 27, 2020. (4) The key agencies include buildings operated by (A) the Department of the Army, (B) the Department of the Navy, (C) the Department of the Air Force, (D) the Department of Energy, (E) the Department of the Interior, (F) the Department of Veterans Affairs, and (G) the General Services Administration. (5) In running the program, the Secretary must use existing financing tools, including energy savings performance contracts, utility energy service contracts, and annual appropriations. (6) Using Federal Energy Management Program whole-building evaluation guidelines, the Secretary must evaluate the costs and benefits of the buildings selected under (2), identifying (A) which advanced building technologies are most cost-effective and show the most promise for increasing building energy savings, improving service to occupants, reducing environmental impact, and improving cybersecurity, and (B) any other information the Secretary considers appropriate. (7) The Secretary may expand awards under the Federal Energy Management Program and the Better Building Challenge to recognize agencies that speed up adopting smart building technology. (c) Survey of private sector smart buildings. (1) The Secretary must survey privately owned smart buildings nationwide, including commercial buildings, laboratory facilities, hospitals, multifamily residential buildings, and buildings owned by nonprofits and colleges. (2) From the buildings surveyed, the Secretary must select at least 1 building each across an appropriate range of sizes, types, and locations. (3) Using the same Federal Energy Management Program guidelines as in (b)(6), the Secretary must evaluate these buildings' costs and benefits, identifying the same kinds of information about advanced building technologies and systems. (d) Better building challenge. As part of the Department's Better Building Challenge, the Secretary — consulting major private-sector property owners — must develop smart building accelerators to demonstrate innovative policies and approaches that will speed up the shift to smart buildings in public, institutional, and commercial buildings. (e) Omitted. The supplied text marks this subsection as omitted, with no content provided. (f) Report. By December 27, 2022, and every 2 years after that until a total of 3 reports have been sent, the Secretary must report to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the House Committees on Energy and Commerce and on Science, Space, and Technology on (1) establishing and evaluating the Federal Smart Building Program under (b); (2) the survey and evaluation of private-sector smart buildings under (c); and (3) the Secretary's recommendations for further speeding up the shift to smart buildings.