Single Point of Responsibility: For a project like this, traditionally the City would hire an engineering firm to design the project then bid and award the construction work to multiple prime contractors (typically four) to be in compliance with Section 135 of the New York State Finance Law, commonly known as the “Wicks Law.” For the City, this would mean additional coordination responsibilities, the risk of finger pointing when mistakes occur, and increased contract administration expenses. An energy performance contract does not require compliance with Wicks Law, allowing the City to hire a single company to be the prime contractor for the entire project, which will streamline coordination and management for the City.

Price Protection: In an energy performance contract, the construction price is agreed upon by the City and the prime contractor before the energy performance contract is approved by the City. This upfront pricing avoids the price uncertainty between the engineer’s price estimate and the actual contractor bid prices that arises in the traditional municipal procurement process. In addition, the risk of costly change orders, common in the traditional project procurement process, is minimized because the engineer is a subcontractor to the prime contractor delivering the energy performance contract and not to the City. This transfers the design responsibility and the associated risk. The City will negotiate a construction scope knowing the agreed upon price will not increase because of design issues.

Accelerated Schedule: As part of the consent order from NYSDEC, the City must be in compliance with the order by an agreed upon date. Energy performance contracting provides flexible techniques such as phased contracting, early equipment procurement, and construction shop drawings created during design that can save months on the construction schedule, save the City money, and ensure that it meets its compliance dates.