California NMEC Incentive Program
Utility-Funded Energy OptimizationFor Your California Buildings
If you own or operate a commercial building in California, you have been paying into the state's public-purpose energy fund on every utility bill since 1998. IQ Edison is the mechanism for recovering value from the system your buildings helped fund — measured at the utility meter, modeled component by component.
Program At A Glance
Reduction range is an objective and the NAV multiplier an arithmetic illustration, not projections. Program funds are limited and committed first-come, first-served.
The Program
The California Incentive Program, In Plain Terms
A state-authorized program that pays on measured performance at the property's own meter — not on estimates, not on deemed values, and not on anyone's brochure.
Authorized By The State
The California Public Utilities Commission has authorized market access programs (Decision 21-12-011) with capped funding administered in the territories of participating utilities and delivered by a dedicated program administrator.
Paid On Measurement, Not Estimates
Under the metered savings approach (NMEC), incentives are paid on measured whole-building performance: twelve months of pre-installation data against post-installation results, weather-normalized, at the utility meter.
The Highest-Value Incentive Class
Because savings are proven at the meter, metered incentives avoid the discounts regulators apply to estimated approaches — every measure at a site is credited together, on findings.
Award Values
Awards are calculated on total system benefit, with summer-peak savings weighted highest. In the program administrator's own words, incentive values can “approach $0.40/kWh and, in some cases, exceed that.”
The Screening Threshold
Projects must model a whole-building electric reduction greater than 10% to enter the program — the same floor we hold ourselves to before recommending any project.
Funded By Ratepayers — Including You
These programs draw on public purpose funds collected on utility bills. Your California buildings have contributed to this fund on every bill, for years, whether or not they ever claimed a dollar back.
A Word On The Funding
The funds are limited, and they are committed first-come, first-served, as projects are approved. This is a now decision — the opportunity does not improve with age.
Which Properties Qualify
Participating Utility Territories
The metered programs operate in the territories of participating utilities, with additional territory status confirmed at intake. The first step confirms which of your California properties sit inside qualifying territories — and that determination is delivered regardless of what you decide afterward.
The CFO Math
Energy Optimization Becomes Net Operating Income — And Net Asset Value
Energy optimization creates value twice: first by reducing recurring operating expense, and then by converting each dollar saved directly into recurring NOI. Unlike a dollar of new revenue, a dollar of avoided energy expense requires no corresponding increase in occupancy, labor, or service delivery. At a 5% market capitalization rate, every dollar of verified recurring NOI supports approximately twenty dollars of net asset value.
| Whole-Building Reduction | Annual Savings (New NOI) | NAV Impact, Per Property | 5-Year Cash, Per Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10%CPUC Minimum | $30,000 | $600,000 | $150,000 |
| 20% | $60,000 | $1,200,000 | $300,000 |
| 30% | $90,000 | $1,800,000 | $450,000 |
| 40% | $120,000 | $2,400,000 | $600,000 |
Illustrative arithmetic only. Annual savings are held flat across the contract term. The NAV column is the one-time revaluation those durable savings support at the cap rate shown; it sits alongside the multi-year cash and is never added to it. Actual figures are modeled component by component, per building, after the usage audit and site survey.
How It Works
The Program, In Seven Steps
Only three of these steps involve your team at all: sending the invoices and completing the online authorization, scheduling access for the survey, and the final decision. The rest is our work to carry.
Historical Invoices And Online Data Authorization
You provide twelve to twenty-four months of historical utility invoices for the selected buildings — PDF copies are sufficient — and authorize utility-data access on the utility's own authorization form, which we prepare and route for signature. Completed online, once per account. We handle every interaction with the utility from there. Neither step commits you to anything beyond the data itself.
Billing-Error Audit — The Cherry On Top
The IQ Edison Energy Arbitrage Desk screens your billing history for errors and recoverable credits, and 65% of every recovered dollar goes to you. A rapid triage establishes preliminary recovery numbers, typically within 24 to 48 hours and at no third-party expense; formal disputes follow only where the triage confirms something actionable. Optional — say the word and we skip it.
Site Survey, Or A Remote Assessment
A scheduled walkthrough to inventory the heavy energy-consuming assets — rooftop units, chillers, refrigeration, process equipment, lighting, controls — arranged around your operations. Where current equipment logs and mechanical and electrical drawings are available, the initial assessment may be completed remotely.
Component-Level Model
We model the savings opportunity technology by technology, at the individual asset level, never blended. Which technologies enter the final stack is decided by the data — the usage audit and the site survey tell us what the building justifies, and we model only that.
The Go / No-Go Standard
If the model does not clear a 10% whole-building reduction, we do not proceed on that building — and we tell you exactly why. We would rather decline a project than defend a weak one.
Utility Submission
We present the energy optimization plan to the program and return to you with the funded scope: what the incentive covers, and what — if anything — remains. Any remaining unfunded balance can qualify for On-Bill Financing, available at 0% interest and offset by realized savings.
Your Decision
Only then do you decide anything at all. To this point: low to nothing out of pocket, and no obligation whatsoever.
The Stack
Selected By The Data
The final stack is selected only after the usage audit and site survey — we model what the building tells us, not what a brochure suggests. Each capability earns its place on evidence.
Non-Invasive, Asset-Level M&V
Every project begins with the measurement layer: non-invasive IoT hardware and software built on CT monitors — installed at the circuit and device level, operating on their own network so nothing touches your IT infrastructure — delivering continuous asset-level data. This layer identifies exactly where the optimization benefit lives, produces the defensible baseline, and powers the utility's verification and your own reporting.
Compressor Optimization — HVAC And Refrigeration
Optimizes the compressor cycles inside HVAC and refrigeration equipment — chillers, rooftop units, walk-ins, process refrigeration — without altering comfort or food safety. Typical range 15–25% of compressor energy (manufacturer-stated, component-level); a verified 25% average chiller energy reduction under IPMVP Option B at a CBRE-managed site; independently validated by Oak Ridge National Laboratory; 35,000+ installations worldwide (manufacturer-stated).
Demand Control Ventilation
Ventilation in most commercial buildings runs on fixed schedules sized for full occupancy. Our demand control ventilation technology conditions air for the people actually present — by CO₂ and occupancy — across open floors, meeting space, lobbies, parking structures, and back-of-house. Modeled per air handler, component-level.
The IQ Edison Energy Arbitrage Desk
Powered by Energy Arbitrage AI
As part of intake, the Arbitrage Desk audits your historical utility invoices for billing errors and recovers what it finds as refunds or credits, with 65% of every recovered dollar delivered to you. After the project, the same desk continues monitoring your consumption and procurement position.
Virtual Energy Monitoring (VEM)
Continuous virtual monitoring of critical infrastructure — chillers, rooftop units, refrigeration, process loads — with weekly or monthly performance reporting to facility and executive teams. Drift, degradation, and exceptions surface at the asset level, so issues are corrected before they reach the utility bill. Subscription service, scoped per property.
Roof Thermal Load Reduction, Radiative Cooling, Window Films, Storage, Solar
Our Energy Optimization Ecosystem extends further — capabilities we introduce only after the entry measures have earned the account, and only where the building's own data justifies them.
Component-level ranges and installation counts are manufacturer-stated. The 25% chiller figure is verified under IPMVP Option B at a CBRE-managed site. Which technologies enter the final stack is decided by the usage audit and site survey data, never assumed.
Credentials And Validation
Independently Awarded Or Meter-Verified
Our standard for every recommendation — defensible and provable, or we do not advise it.
CBRE Innovation Challenge — Winner
The compressor-optimization technology in our stack won the Smart & Sustainable Solutions category (London, April 2026, from a field of sixteen global finalists).
CBRE Above & Beyond Award, 2025
Also won the CBRE ESG & Social Impact award, anchored by a verified 25% average chiller energy reduction under IPMVP Option B at a CBRE-managed site.
Deployed In Hospitality, With CBRE
The same technology is being rolled out across IHG Hotels alongside CBRE — already running in operating buildings, not only in pilots.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory Validated
Independently validated by ORNL (U.S. Department of Energy) and in service across 35,000+ installations worldwide (manufacturer-stated).
Award and validation records available on request.
What You Receive
Seven Deliverables, Whatever You Decide
All of it produced at no cost, and with no obligation.
The Site Survey
A walkthrough of each property's mechanical, electrical, and occupant-facing systems, scheduled around your operations — or completed remotely where current equipment logs and drawings are available.
A Gap Analysis
Where each building's current performance sits against what the same asset could achieve, system by system.
An Energy Optimization Opportunity Report
Every opportunity identified, quantified, and prioritized. Yours to keep and act on with or without IQ Edison.
Billing-Error Audit Findings
And recovery of any credits identified, with 65% of every recovered dollar delivered to you.
A Component-Level Performance Model
Each technology modeled on its own asset-level data, never blended.
The Utility-Funded Scope
In plain terms: what the program will pay for, and what, if anything, remains.
A Replication Plan
How the template extends across every qualifying property you own or operate in California.
If The Numbers Do Not Justify Proceeding
You will have learned exactly where your buildings' energy goes, with a candid explanation of the findings — and we move on to the next property.
Why Timing Matters
The Baseline Clock Starts When The Data Pull Starts
The Baseline Clock
The program measures against twelve months of pre-installation utility data — and that clock starts only when the data pull starts. Sending the invoices and completing the online authorization is the starting gun.
Finite Funds, Awarded In Order
Program budgets are capped and committed as projects are approved. Properties that establish their baseline and submit early draw on the fund early.
Our Position With The Program
We are vetted by, and work alongside, the utility program administrator. Well-prepared submissions move quickly — and ours arrive well-prepared.
Portfolio Leverage
The first project builds the template. The sooner it exists, the sooner it can be applied across every qualifying California property — each on its own meter, each on its own merits.
How To Begin
What We Recommend, In Order
Four steps. The first three move the project forward; the fourth simply saves us time.
Begin With The Buildings You Already Suspect
You know your portfolio better than any screening we could run from the outside — which buildings are the worst performers, and where the utility spend has never quite made sense. We recommend starting there. The selection remains entirely yours.
Send The Invoices And Authorize The Data Retrieval
Twelve to twenty-four months of historical utility invoices in PDF form, plus the utility's own online data authorization, which we prepare and route. It commits you to nothing beyond the data itself — and preliminary billing-recovery numbers typically follow within 24 to 48 hours.
Designate A Single Point Of Contact
In most cases one building engineer or property manager per property is all that is needed: they provide access to the relevant areas and answer a limited number of building-specific questions.
Share The M&E Drawings If They Are On Hand
Mechanical and electrical drawings give us a welcome head start on the survey. Genuinely useful, and in no way necessary — we proceed without them regularly.
The Next Step
California Building Owners And Operators — Start Here
We welcome the hard questions from the finance, sustainability, and facilities perspectives alike. If what you see resonates, the invoices and the online data authorization can both be handled the same week, and the baseline clock starts immediately.
If useful before an engagement is finalized, you may also request the participation of the Program Administrator and the relevant technology principals to address technical or program-specific questions directly.
Sources on request: CPUC Decision 21-12-011; AB 1890 (1996) and AB 1002 (1999), establishing the electric Public Goods Charge collected from 1998 and the parallel natural-gas public-purpose surcharge from the early 2000s; program implementation documentation; CBRE Innovation Challenge 2026 and Above & Beyond 2025 award records; IPMVP Option B verification reports; manufacturer-published component-level case data. Incentive values quoted with attribution to the program administrator; final award amounts are determined by the program based on measured results. NOI/NAV figures are arithmetic illustrations, not projections.