Regulatory Requirements for Existing Buildings

To achieve an all-round sustainable built environment, it is important to ensure that existing buildings continue to operate efficiently throughout their life cycle.

Requirements

Based on PartIIIB– Environmental Sustainability Measures for Existing Buildings in the Building Control Act, owners of existing buildings must:

• Meet the minimum environmental sustainability standards when making major energy-use change.

• Conduct regular energy efficiency audits of the building’s cooling systems. See Periodic Energy Audit for more information.

• Submit energy use and related building information. See Building Energy Benchmarking for more information.

• Carry out energy audits and undertake energy efficiency improvement measures if your building(s) is consistently energy intensive. See Mandatory Energy Improvement (MEI) Regime for more information.

Minimum Environmental Sustainability Standard

From 2 January 2017 onwards, the Building Control (Environmental Sustainability Measures for Existing Building) (Amendment) Regulations 2016 will apply to all buildings that:

• Have a GFA greater than 5,000m^2.

• Install or replace the building cooling system.

These buildings are excluded from the requirement:

• Any industrial building

• Any railway premises, port services and facilities or airport services and facilities

• Any religious buildings

• Any data centres

• Any utility buildings

• Any residential building, excluding serviced apartments

Submission requirements

Prior to installing or replacing a chiller, Buildings owners must:

• Meet the pre-requisite requirements as specified in the Code on Environmental Sustainability Measures for Existing buildings.

• Meet any other requirements specified in the code.

Additionally, building owners must submit to BCA for approval via Corenet:

• A design application form for the building including other specified documents before installing or replacing of chillers (major energy-use change)

• An as-built application form for the building including other specified documents after completing the installation of chillers

Note: A Professional Engineer (Mechanical) [Select “Mechanical” under “Branch of Engineering”] must ensure that the overall building design meets the requirements specified in the Code, taking into the account the chiller upgrade and other energy improvement works. The major energy-use change must be completed within 3 years from the date BCA approves the design application.

Plan fees

For submission of design or as-built applications related to chiller systems:  

• $8,900 for the first 15,000 m² or part thereof  

• $0.15 for every subsequent square metre or part thereof  

Mandatory Submission of Periodic Energy Audits (PEA)

Building owners are required to conduct mandatory periodic energy audits (PEA) upon receiving a PEA notice from BCA. These mandatory periodic energy audits ensure that cooling systems continue to operate efficiently throughout a building’s lifespan. This allows building owners to continuously reap energy saving benefits.

Once a notice is received from the Commissioner of Building Control, building owners must engage either a Professional Engineer (Mechanical) or a BCA-registered Energy Auditor to conduct an energy audit, ensuring compliance with the Code on Periodic Energy Audit of Building Cooling System. The required documents must then be submitted to BCA for review. Refer to Periodic Energy Audit for more information.

Building Energy Benchmarking

Since 2013, building owners have been required to submit annual building information and energy consumption data to BCA. Buildings are benchmarked based on their Energy Use Intensity (EUI), which is computed by dividing a building's total annual electricity consumption (in kWh) by its Gross Floor Area (GFA) in m². This allows for the comparison of a building's energy performance against similar building types. See Building Energy Benchmarking for more information.

Mandatory Energy Improvement (MEI) Regime

Under the Mandatory Energy Improvement (MEI) regime established in the Building Control (Amendment) Act 2024, gazetted on 11 October 2024, building owners of energy-intensive buildings must follow a four-stage compliance process. They must engage a Specified Individual, Professional Engineer (Mechanical) or BCA-registered Energy Auditor, within 90 days to conduct an energy audit, with the completed audit report and Energy Efficiency Improvement Plan (EEIP) submitted to BCA within one year of receiving the MEI notice. Building owners then have three years from the EEIP submission date to implement measures that reduce the building's energy consumption by 10% compared to the average Energy Use Intensity from the three years preceding the notice. Finally, they must maintain this improved energy performance for one year and submit a maintenance report to BCA within three months after the maintenance period ends. See Mandatory Energy Improvement (MEI) Regime for more information.

Related Links

Refer to the following documents related to the Building Control (Environmental Sustainability Measures for Existing Building) Regulations: 

• Circular on Existing Building Legislation [PDF, 1.38 MB]

• Circular to Building Owners on Minimum Standards and Periodic Energy Audit on Building Cooling System [PDF, 590 KB]

• Mandatory Submission of Periodic Energy Audits

• FAQ on Environmental Sustainability Requirement [PDF, 1.08 MB]

• FAQs on Measurement and Verification (M&V): For ES Regulations and GM Certification [PDF, 219 KB] 

To ascertain if your project is subject to the regulation, please submit detailed scope of works using this Work Scope Information form [XLSX, 29.3 KB]via BCA Feeback Form

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