Energy Code Compliance Evaluation Support

The California Energy Commission seeks a Prime Contractor to lead a team of professional architectural and engineering consultants to provide comprehensive technical support for Energy Code compliance evaluation and improvement initiatives. The contractor will design and execute methodologically defensible evaluations to address critical statewide data gaps and enhance the California Energy Commission's understanding of both process-based and energy-based compliance across building categories.

Key responsibilities include conducting comprehensive field studies across defined building categories and compliance definitions, recognizing the performance-based nature of the Energy Code and the existence of multiple compliance pathways. The contractor will improve the State's intelligence regarding Energy Code compliance through evidence-based identification of systemic challenges, regional variations, and root causes of noncompliance, informed by empirical field data. The work will establish a technical foundation for future statewide Energy Code compliance rates analyses, including development and validation of evaluation methodologies, sampling frameworks, data collection instruments, and analytical approaches that can be replicated and scaled in subsequent studies.

The contractor will support implementation of recommendations from the "California Energy Code Compliance Gap Analysis" staff report by providing technical evaluation, feasibility assessment, and empirical evidence to inform enforcement strategies, compliance improvement priorities, and future policy development. Additionally, the contractor will identify and support technically grounded compliance implementation solutions, including evaluation-informed recommendations, pilot concepts, workforce-related technical assistance, and implementation-ready tools or frameworks that enable State, regional, and local partners to improve Energy Code compliance outcomes.

Important dates include: Release Date - May 5, 2026; Pre-Bid Conference - May 19, 2026 from 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM (Remote Access Only); Questions Deadline - May 19, 2026 at 5:00 PM; Submission Deadline - July 14, 2026 at 11:59 PM. Applications must be submitted using the Grant Solicitation System (GSS).