GBCI to administer PEER certification for power grids and building projects

The Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) will administer certification for the Performance Excellence in Electricity Renewal (PEER) program. PEER is billed as “the nation’s first comprehensive, consumer-centric, data-driven system for evaluating power system performance.” It is modeled after the LEED program.

“The PEER program provides a much more complete picture of the efficiency, quality, safety, resilience and reliability of energy generation, transmission, and distribution systems than is currently available,” said Mahesh Ramanujam, president, GBCI. “It provides actionable information that empowers building owners and power providers to configure and operate their systems to maximum effectiveness. Buildings and the power systems they rely on are inextricably interconnected.”

USGBC says that in 2015 it will look at PEER certification as a pilot credit within the LEED rating system.

(http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=ca55cb2e5c853bc823c1f59af&id=a5e6fe1357&e=e4f9394553)

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.