Building Automation & Controls
Controls projects produce the fastest paybacks in commercial efficiency — when the M&V protocol is built right.
A modern BAS upgrade routinely returns its installed cost in under twelve months net of utility rebate. The mechanical and electrical work is straightforward; what trips most projects up is the measurement and verification protocol the utility requires before it will release a custom incentive against modeled controls savings. Get the M&V wrong and the rebate shrinks to a token prescriptive payment.
We design the sequence of operation, the points list and the M&V plan as a single document, and we submit it for utility pre-approval before the controls vendor begins programming. By the time your building is online, the savings calculations are already accepted, the trend logs are already configured, and the rebate is on a defined release schedule rather than open to interpretation.
Why most controls upgrades capture only a fraction of the available rebate.
Controls vendors install what they were paid to install. They are not paid to model baseline run hours, document override patterns, or build a measurement protocol that satisfies a utility engineer reviewing the application six months later. When the rebate filing relies on the contractor's spec sheet, the incentive defaults to whatever prescriptive sensor payment the program publishes — pennies on the dollar.
Our engagement starts with two weeks of trend logging on the existing system. The data we collect becomes the baseline the custom incentive is paid against, and the sequence redesign that follows is engineered to produce a measurable, defensible delta on the same trend points after commissioning.
Open-protocol controls that pay back, then keep paying through demand response.
We specify open-protocol BAS architectures — BACnet IP, Modbus TCP, MQTT — that protect the building from vendor lock-in and qualify cleanly for utility incentive review. The hardware is the easy part; what we engineer carefully is the sequence of operation, because the sequence is what produces the kWh savings the rebate is paid against.
Resets, optimal start, supply air temperature reset, condenser water reset and economizer changeover logic are all rewritten against the building's actual load profile rather than against generic ASHRAE Guideline 36 templates. The incentive is paid against the delta, and the delta is largest when the new sequence is built for this building, not for a building like it.
Occupancy sensors, daylight harvesting and CO2-driven ventilation are added wherever the system architecture supports them and the rebate program will pay for them. Each sensor carries its own prescriptive payment and contributes to the whole-building model, which is how a controls project that started as a $40K thermostat replacement ends up returning $180K in stacked utility incentives.
Demand response enrollment is the quiet compounding piece. Once the BAS can respond to a utility curtailment signal, your building begins receiving annual capacity payments that continue indefinitely. We handle the enrollment, the test event, and the ongoing reporting so the payments arrive on schedule without consuming facilities time.
The rebate layers that compound on a controls retrofit.
Custom controls incentives
DTE Energy Smart Buildings and Consumers Energy custom programs pay against measured kWh reduction from sequence redesign, optimal start and reset strategies. The incentive scales with project size and is the largest single payment on most BAS engagements.
Prescriptive sensor and device rebates
Occupancy sensors, advanced thermostats, VAV box retrofits and CO2 sensors each carry a per-device prescriptive payment that stacks on top of the custom incentive. Filed together, these often cover the engineering fee outright.
Demand response capacity payments
Once enrolled in DTE or Consumers demand response, your building earns annual capacity payments for being available to curtail load during utility events. These payments continue every year the enrollment is maintained.
Michigan Energy Optimization adders
State-level optimization programs layer additional incentives on advanced controls projects that exceed utility-tier caps, particularly for analytics, fault detection and ongoing commissioning platforms.
A four-stage engagement that owns the project from trend log to capacity payment.
Controls audit
Inventory of existing BAS, sequences of operation and override patterns.
Sequence redesign
Resets, scheduling, and economizer logic optimized for incentive capture.
Implementation oversight
We coordinate with your controls vendor and verify points list compliance.
M&V & rebate
12-month performance verification and full rebate disbursement.
BAS upgrade plus demand response enrollment across 480K sq ft. 9-month payback net of incentive.
Other rebate programs we run end to end.
Ready to model controls & bas rebates for your facility?
Free, no-obligation assessment. We’ll surface every program your project qualifies for within 24 hours.