ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

ASSEMBLY, No. 297

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

ADOPTED MAY 2, 1996

Sponsored by Assemblyman ROONEY

AN ACT concerning energy efficiency and supplementing Title 40A of the New Jersey Statutes and Title 52 of the Revised Statutes.

      Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

      1.   As used in this act:

      "Board" means the Board of Public Utilities.

      "Governmental entity" means the State, counties, municipalities, and any of their political subdivisions, including any department, division, board, bureau, office, commission, institution, agency, authority or instrumentality thereof; any school district; any post-secondary educational institution receiving State or county funds; and any body, public and corporate, created as an independent or quasi-independent agency, authority, commission, or other similar instrumentality by the State or one or more counties or municipalities, except those created by the State that are the subject of bi-state agreements or compacts.

      "Machinery or electrical equipment" means a fan, pump, compressor, conveyor, power transmission device, or other machine or piece of electrical equipment that uses more than the equivalent of 20,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.

      "Operations" means buildings, facilities, and any other structures, the mechanical infrastructures thereof, and the equipment and appliances used therein that are owned, or operated using public funds, by a governmental entity.

      2. a. The Administrator of the General Services Administration in the Department of the Treasury, in consultation with the Board of Public Utilities, shall review and modify all bid and product specifications relating to the purchase of machinery or electrical equipment to provide that the specifications do not discriminate against, but rather encourage, the purchase of the most energy efficient machinery and electrical equipment for each respective category thereof.

      b. The Administrator of the General Services Administration, when purchasing any machinery and electrical equipment for use by any department or agency of the State, or by any county, municipality, or school district pursuant to P.L.1969, c.104 (C.52:25-16.1 et al.), shall give preference to machinery and electrical equipment that the board certifies, based on the technical guidelines developed pursuant to section 7 of this act, as the most energy efficient machinery and electrical equipment. This preference shall be based upon energy cost savings over: (1) the useful life of the machinery or electrical equipment; or (2) at a minimum, the first three years of operation of the machinery or electrical equipment. If a bid relating to the purchase of machinery or electrical equipment involves machinery or electrical equipment that has a higher initial cost but would save more in energy costs over the first three years of operation than the price difference between that machinery or electrical equipment and the next most efficient machinery or electrical equipment, that bid shall be deemed to be the lowest responsible bid.

      c. Energy efficiency shall be determined for any particular piece of machinery or electrical equipment by combining the energy efficiencies of all relevant component parts thereof, measured on an energy equivalency basis of total annual kilowatt-hours of electricity consumed, or such other comparable energy equivalency basis as may be determined by the board.

      3. a. Not later than one year after the effective date of this section, every governmental entity that is not exempt under subsection b. of this section, shall request an energy audit of its existing operations from its local public utility company to be performed at no cost, if such no-cost energy audits are available. Following receipt of the outcome of the audit from the local public utility company, the governmental entity shall submit, in writing, to the board its plan for improvements thereto that the governmental entity finds economically feasible and which would result in significant cost savings through energy savings for the governmental entity. Improvements shall include such items as: insulation, thermal pane windows, premium efficiency electric motors, high efficiency heating and cooling systems, gearings and pumps, and reduced-friction and resistance-free devices.

      b. Those governmental entities already participating in energy efficiency or energy conservation programs under law, to the extent of their participation therein, and those governmental entities serviced by public utility companies that do not provide no-cost energy audits are exempt from the provisions of subsection a. of this section.

      c. Not later than six months after the receipt by the board of any plan from a governmental entity, as required under subsection a. of this section, the board may recommend to the governmental entity modifications to the plan, if, in the opinion of the board, the plan does not promote significant energy cost savings or that modifications are economically feasible and would further reduce costs to the governmental entity. If the governmental entity receives no written communication of modification requirements from the board within six months of submitting the plan, the plan shall be considered approved and the governmental entity shall begin implementation of the plan. A governmental entity may negotiate with the board to set a deadline for the completion of these improvements, and may negotiate for extensions of that deadline.

      4. Within one year after the effective date of this section, the board shall recommend to the Governor and the Legislature the types of funding programs that are necessary to assist governmental entities in fulfilling their efforts under section 3 of this act. Thereafter, the board may recommend to the Governor and the Legislature additional funding programs for extended improvements, if these become necessary.

      5. In addition to the requirements set forth in chapter 11 of Title 40A of the New Jersey Statutes, no local governmental unit shall purchase, contract for or lease a new electrically powered device of three kilowatts of power or more unless the device shall have permanently affixed thereto information identifying its component efficiency rating, which rating shall be in accordance with accepted industry or trade association standards.

      6. No new electrically powered device of three kilowatts of power or more shall be purchased, contracted for or leased by the State unless it has permanently affixed thereto information identifying its component efficiency rating, which shall be in accordance with accepted industry or trade association standards.

      7. The Board of Public Utilities, in consultation with the Department of the Treasury, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), shall adopt rules and regulations necessary to implement this act, including those establishing technical guidelines for use in determining and ranking the energy efficiency of machinery and electrical equipment. These guidelines shall be based on information from standard industry, trade association, testing laboratory, and professional and technical organization sources.

      8. Section 2 of this act shall take effect one year following the

date of enactment and sections 5 and 6 shall take effect on the 45th day following the date of enactment. The remainder of this act shall take effect immediately.

Requires State to purchase energy efficient machinery and electrical equipment and requires governmental entities to prepare energy savings plans.