NORESCO to Lead Initiative Advancing California Energy Code

NORESCO will continue to support the California Energy Commission (CEC) in advancing Title 24, the energy code that supports the fourth largest economy in the world. Under a new contract, NORESCO will provide technical support for Title 24 Part 6 building standards and further develop and enhance the state’s compliance software for the next three-year cycle of California’s energy code. This engagement extends NORESCO’s two-decade collaboration with the CEC.

“With NORESCO’s support, the CEC is proud to advance world-leading building standards that lower energy costs while ensuring a safe, resilient and reliable energy supply for all Californians,” said Will Vicent, Deputy Director of Building Standards, California Energy Commission. “NORESCO will provide the CEC with the specialized technical expertise required to develop, implement and maintain these premier building energy efficiency standards, helping to tackle California’s most pressing energy challenges.”

The 2028 code cycle will look to expand requirements for photovoltaics, heat pumps and battery systems, enhance the integrity of building envelopes and minimize energy usage from processes with specific energy code requirements in California. Additionally, it will emphasize advancing energy accounting methods by utilizing improved prototype models, updated weather files and metrics and more accurate accounting of plug-and-process loads for code development analysis and performance compliance. 

Unlike prior contracts, the new scope combines technical support of residential building standards, non-residential building standards and software development efforts. To cover the necessary breadth and depth of technical expertise across residential and nonresidential buildings, NORESCO is leading a specialized team consisting of national experts with extensive knowledge of California’s energy code, as well as expertise in energy modeling, building science, code compliance and software development. This team will play a pivotal role in shaping California’s 2028 energy code. 

“With this new contract, we are bringing our code development and software development groups together, which will enable us to better support the CEC in improving the code infrastructure in California, from development, to implementation, to compliance,” said Rahul Athalye, Technical Director of Code Development, NORESCO. 

During the 2025 code cycle, the NORESCO code development group supported updates to photovoltaics, battery storage requirements and the development of multizone heat pump requirements. These new requirements in the 2025 building standards are expected to significantly reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions. 

For the last several energy code cycles, NORESCO’s software group has provided development and support of California Building Energy Code Compliance (CBECC) software, CBECC-Res, forms infrastructure, and the Alternative Calculation Method (ACM) Manuals. This group will continue to develop state-of-the-art performance compliance modeling software, CBECC and CBECC-Res, as well as support activities to improve the code compliance infrastructure in California. 

Along with supporting development of and compliance with the energy code for California, NORESCO has performed code development and code compliance work in the states of New York, Washington, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Maryland and other jurisdictions that are leading the charge toward zero-carbon and zero-energy building codes. NORESCO recently worked with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to develop the NYStretch Energy Code and with the Colorado Energy Office to develop the state’s new Microgrid Roadmap.

For more information, visit NORESCO's website at www.noresco.com.

About NORESCO

NORESCO helps clients modernize aging building systems and upgrade energy and water infrastructure to meet the evolving demands of the 21st century. We implement innovative energy efficiency, distributed generation, energy storage, and renewable energy solutions that optimize the operational efficiency and improve resilience of buildings, campuses, military installations, and communities. To date, NORESCO has implemented solutions that provide more than $5 billion in guaranteed energy and operating cost savings at more than 10,000 facilities, while reducing customer CO₂ emissions by more than 25 million metric tons – the equivalent of planting 1.4 million acres of forest.
For more information, visit www.noresco.com