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Multifamily New Construction


Earn incentives for new multifamily buildings

This program takes a whole building performance approach, and pays you for each unit of energy saved. The more energy you save, the more you’ll earn. Contact us early in the design process, before starting construction or purchasing energy-efficient equipment, to leverage PSE’s new construction incentives.

What you get

The total value of your New Construction grant depends on your energy saved, per incentive rates shown below. Incentive rates are 50% higher for affordable housing projects (see definition below).

Grant estimation approach

Whole building performance using Net Energy Optimizer
ElectricStandard: $0.45/kWh or $8/therm*
ElectricAffordable Housing: $0.68/kWh or $12/therm*

*Grant applies to Equipment and installation.

How we work together

1
Enrollment
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You provide schematic information about your building through our Mulitfamily New Construction application
2
Preliminary Analysis
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Together we perform real-time evaluation of energy-efficiency measures and bundle potential whole-building strategies for further analysis
3
Final Analysis
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You determine the strategies bundle that best aligns with your project goals, from which projected energy savings and utility incentives are determined
4
Verification
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We confirm your project was constructed to plan and issue a final report for you and your utility provider
5
Incentives
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Incentives will be issued for the strategies implemented in your project

Affordable housing projects

PSE provides at 50% bonus multiplier (beyond that of market rate projects) for affordable housing projects. To be eligible, the project must meet Washington State Housing Finance Commission low income housing requirements, listed below.

  • At least 40% of the total housing units in a project must be rented to residents with incomes at or below 60% of the AMI adjusted for household size
  • At least 20% of the total housing units in a project must be rented to residents with incomes at or below 50% of the AMI adjusted for household size.
  • Income Averaging - allows units to serve households earning as much as 80% of the AMI as long as the average income/rent limit in the property is 60% or less of AMI

The project owner must submit one of the following supporting documents:

  1. A Regulatory Agreement for Covenants and Easements for Low Income Housing
  2. An approval letter from the Washington State Housing Finance Commission

The bonus is applied to the total incentive amount (including any exterior/parking garage lighting incentives).


  • How you qualify

    To be eligible for PSE's Multifamily New Construction program:

    • You must currently be or plan to become a PSE business electric and/or natural gas customer.
    • Your new property must be a multifamily or mixed-use dwelling with at least four attached units.
    • Your new property must be within PSE's electric and/or natural gas service area(s).
    • You must be pre-approved by PSE prior to installing any energy efficiency improvement measure(s).
    • Project must be in the design or construction phase.

How you apply

To get started with PSE’s Multifamily New Construction program, please fill out the application or contact Willdan’s Outreach Manager, at 206-216-3405 or PSENewConstruction@willdan.com.

Become a Sustainability Star

Ask an Energy Advisor

For personalized advice, contact our partner Willdan.

Or call 1-206-216-3405.

Case study

Learn how Opportunity Council received $79k in grant funding, reducing energy costs by 27% at the Laurel Forest site in Bellingham.

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