District Thermal Energy and Single LEED project boundary

The project comprises four hospital buildings, called B, C, D and E, and each building is registered as an individual project on a campus basis. A chilled water plant, located at the roof of building C, serves buildings B and C. According to the document “Treatment of District or Campus Thermal Energy in LEED® V2 and LEED® 2009 – Design & Construction”, of August 2010, if a central plant does not serve other buildings not within the LEED project boundaries for the project, the plant is not defined as a District or Campus Energy System – DES. This inquiry is to confirm that: 1. Since buildings are not grouped as a single LEED project, the central plant shall be treated as a DES and compliance shall be demonstrated following one of the following options: Option 1 (streamlined): the building stand-alone scenario, with 12 points cap, i.e. the central plant is modeled as purchased energy for both the baseline and proposed case energy models, with no direct accounting of the district network’s efficiency, and a restriction of the maximum number of points that can be earned under EAc1. Option 2 (full accounting): the aggregate building / DES scenario with 8 points floor, i.e. the efficiency of the central plant is directly accounted in the proposed case energy model, baseline case is modeled according to standard ASHRAE 90.1 baseline system, and the project must achieve a certain minimum number of points under EAc1. 2. In order to the central plant not to be treated as a DES, buildings B and C should be registered under a single group project.