Investment-grade Audits… Fact, or Fiction

Authors

  • James P. Waltz P.E., C.E.M., A.C.F.E. President, Energy Resource Associates, Inc.

Abstract

Performance contracting is all the rage for facility managers in the
late 1990s and early 2000s. Everybody talks about “energy audits” and
“investment-grade audits,” but what’s the difference, and what is an
audit, really? This article provides a down-to-earth discussion of the
need for and benefits to be derived from doing investment-grade audits.
It also provides a detailed description of what an investment-grade
audit should be—as based on the author’s more than two decades of
experience in the performance contracting field, his nationwide seminar
on performance contracting, and his forthcoming book by The Fairmont
Press.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

James P. Waltz, P.E., C.E.M., A.C.F.E. President, Energy Resource Associates, Inc.

James P. Waltz, president of Energy Resource Associates, Inc., has served as energy management program manager for the Air Force Logistics Command and the University of California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In addition he has worked as an energy management engineer for consulting and contracting firms. In 1981 he founded Energy Resource Associates for the purpose of helping to shape the then-emerging energy services industry—and did so through a multi-year assignment to create a still-successful energy services business unit for a Fortune 500 temperature controls manufacturer.

Specializing in the mechanical, electrical and control systems of existing buildings, Mr. Waltz’s firm has accomplished a wide variety of facilities projects, recently including a corporate-wide energy management program review for a major hospital chain, design of a replacement chilled water plant for a northern California hospital, on-site recommissioning of the entire building automation system for another northern California hospital and audit and expert testimony relating to a failed energy services contract for a large southern California hospital. Mr. Waltz’s firm was the State of California’s sole performance contracting consultant during their performance contracting program development and provides performance contracting owner’s representative services for such clients in 18 western states.

Mr. Waltz’s credentials include a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, a Masters degree in business administration, Professional Engineering Registration in three states, charter member of and Certified Energy Manager of the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE), board certified Forensic Engineer, member of the Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP), Demand Side Management Society (DSMS) and the American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

Mr. Waltz serves as a member of the DOE’s measurement and verification protocol technical committee, responsible for the 1997 International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP). Mr. Waltz was named International Energy Engineer of the Year in 1993 by the Association of Energy Engineers(AEE) and taught a nationwide performance contracting seminar through the AEE. He may be reached at www.eraenergy.com.

Downloads

Published

2023-07-11

How to Cite

Waltz, J. P. . (2023). Investment-grade Audits… Fact, or Fiction. Strategic Planning for Energy and the Environment, 23(1), 69–79. Retrieved from https://journals.riverpublishers.com/index.php/SPEE/article/view/20251

Issue

2003: Vol 23 Iss 1 2003-2004

Section

Articles