Multifamily Strategic Energy Management Accelerator
EnergyOverview
Klimate Consulting supports Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy on the Multifamily Strategic Energy Management (SEM) Accelerator — an effort to translate years of pilot work into a replicable, off-the-shelf program framework that utilities can stand up across their service territories. Our role spans framework design, utility outreach, cohort recruitment, and assessment instruments that measure how aligned a given program is with proven best practice.
The Challenge
Multifamily housing is one of the hardest segments of the buildings sector to reach. Owners, residents, and utilities each control different levers; data is scarce; and split incentives discourage investment. A handful of well-resourced utilities have built sophisticated SEM programs over the past decade, but the lessons have stayed inside those organizations. Existing reference frameworks from the Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE) capture the right ideas, but their 7- and 9-phase structures are too dense for a utility starting from zero.
Our Approach
Working with LBNL and DOE, we led the strategic pivot from a one-off software tool to an "MF SEM Program in a Box" — a market-facing framework distilled into a 3–5 step structure built around a two-loop visual: a Utility Program loop and a Building Level cycle of Assess, Plan, Implement, Optimize. Alongside the framework we designed a short gap-assessment survey for utility program administrators (weighted scoring, ~3–5 minutes to complete) and built the recruitment materials and outreach process to bring a new program cohort on board. Recent cohort additions include the Tennessee Valley Authority, Franklin Energy, and Julia Hughes Consulting.
Impact
The framework gives any utility a credible starting point for launching or maturing a multifamily SEM program — collapsing what used to be a years-long internal design effort into an adoptable template, with an assessment tool that lets program staff measure their alignment over time. As the cohort grows, the framework and the gap-assessment data together become a feedback loop that DOE and LBNL can use to keep the program design current with what works in the field.