Hello everyone.

A quick question for you.

We're modeling a building to evaluate its performance for LEED Canada-CS, using EE4/MNECB as the modeling tool.

My question is whether or not if we should/need to define different utility rates for the proposed building and the reference building. Is this allowed?

The motivation for this is because the electrical utility rate for our region is set with a minimum kW to pay each month, which is equal to 65% of the max demand over a period of 12 months. So, if a given monthly kW demand is lower than that minimum, you pay a "penalty" for un-demanded kW.

Since both proposed and reference buildings have a different monthly demand profile, the min kW to pay, and the total "penalty", would differ. This influences the total energy costs for both building, and the % energy savings used to evaluate the LEED points.

So, can we set different rates, defined to match the actual utility demand of each case? My guess is yes, but I want to check...

Thanks.

Frederic Genest, P.Eng.