kW Engineering

What kW Engineering does

kW Engineering (legal entity Kilowatt Engineering, Inc.) is a privately held, Oakland, California-based energy efficiency and decarbonization consulting firm founded in 1997. The firm serves commercial building owners and property managers, investor-owned and municipal utilities, and select verticals including grocery/retail refrigeration and higher education research laboratories, with a stated multi-disciplinary engineering team of 101-250 employees and regional offices in Sacramento, Long Beach, Boise, Salt Lake City, and New York City. Its service portfolio is organized around four lines: Electrification & Decarbonization, Commissioning (new construction and retro-commissioning), Utility Program Support, and Smart Building Solutions, complemented by professional training programs including Building Operator Certification (BOC), SHIELD leadership development, and IPMVP M&V training. The firm is NMSDC-certified as a Minority Business Enterprise.

The technical foundation rests on two proprietary software assets and one third-party platform. The in-house open-source nmecr R package implements Normalized Metered Energy Consumption (NMEC) measurement and verification, incorporating the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory time-of-week and temperature model, ASHRAE change-point models, simple linear regression, and HDD/CDD degree-day algorithms across hourly, daily, and monthly intervals. The free Get Psyched! Excel add-in supports psychrometric calculations, and SkySpark serves as the building analytics backbone for fault detection, occupant comfort analysis, and monitoring-based commissioning on building automation system data. The firm integrates these tools directly into client engagements rather than selling them as standalone products.

Revenue is generated through project-based professional services engagements with multi-year contract cadence, priced via custom quotes rather than published rates. The go-to-market is sales-led and direct to enterprise building owners and property managers, with a parallel indirect channel through utility program delivery contracts with PG&E, SCE, SDG&E, SoCalGas, Seattle City Light, and SoCalREN. Leadership is held by CEO Russell Schmit and Founding Principal/President Jim Kelsey, a co-author of ASHRAE Standard 211 and IPMVP Committee member. The company is privately held with no disclosed institutional investors or funding rounds.

Name

kW Engineering

Legal name

Kilowatt Engineering, Inc.

Website

https://kw-engineering.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

kW Engineering is a privately held, Oakland-based energy efficiency and decarbonization consulting firm serving commercial building owners, utilities, and select verticals through six regional offices in California, Idaho, Utah, and New York.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Energy Efficiency Consulting

NAICS

Engineering Services (54133), Engineering Services (541330)

SIC

Services-Engineering Services (8711)

akta.pro primary industry

Energy Systems & Power Engineering Consulting (BPAHAIAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Systems Engineering & Technical Program Management (BPAHAIAI), SCADA, Controls & Communications Integration (RTU, Fiber, Networking) (EUAEADAD)

Keywords

• Energy efficiency consulting
• Building commissioning services
• Retro-commissioning services
• Utility program delivery
• Building decarbonization consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

Oakland

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices6 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Energy Efficiency Consulting Services: Professional consulting services for building electrification, decarbonization, commissioning, and utility program support. Revenue generated through project-based consulting engagements with commercial building owners, property managers, and utilities.
2. Training Programs: Expert training programs covering industry standards and best practices including Building Operator Certification (BOC), SHIELD leadership development, energy audit standards, and M&V concepts. Delivered as workshops and classes.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

kW Engineering provides commercial-building energy efficiency consulting services, including energy audits, new-construction commissioning, retro-commissioning (RCx and MBCx), electrification and decarbonization planning, and utility program delivery support. The firm also offers proprietary technical tools (the open-source nmecr R package for NMEC-based measurement and verification, and the Get Psyched! psychrometrics Excel add-in) and professional training programs (BOC, SHIELD, IPMVP M&V).

Product overview

kW Engineering is a sustainable buildings and energy efficiency consulting firm offering a portfolio of services and proprietary software tools. Their core consulting services include Electrification & Decarbonization, Commissioning (new construction and retro-commissioning), Utility Program Support, and Smart Building Solutions. Their software offerings include nmecr, an open-source R package for NMEC-based measurement and verification, and the free Get Psyched! Excel add-in for psychrometric calculations. They also provide professional training programs including Building Operator Certification, SHIELD leadership development, and IPMVP M&V training. The company supports these offerings with case studies, blog insights, and energy efficiency tools for the commercial buildings sector.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Electrification & Decarbonization Consulting Consulting services that help commercial building owners reduce carbon emissions and achieve energy efficiency goals through building electrification strategies, fuel-switching analysis, and decarbonization roadmaps.
• Commissioning Services New building commissioning and retro-commissioning (RCx) services designed to achieve and maintain energy efficient building operations through systems verification and optimization.
• Utility Program Support Engineering and delivery services for utility energy efficiency programs, including technical review, NMEC measurement and verification, and end-to-end program implementation for utilities such as PG&E, SCE, SDG&E, SoCalGas, Seattle City Light, and SoCalREN.
• Smart Building Solutions Solutions that integrate building analytics, IoT, and smart technologies (including the SkySpark analytics platform) for fault detection, occupant comfort analysis, and ongoing commissioning to optimize building performance.
• nmecr (NMEC R Package) Open-source R package for analyzing commercial building energy consumption using a meter-based, whole-building NMEC approach to measurement and verification of energy efficiency projects; includes time-of-week, ASHRAE change-point, linear regression, and HDD/CDD modeling algorithms with hourly, daily, and monthly time interval support.
• Get Psyched! Excel Add-in Free Excel add-in that enables psychrometric calculations and charts for HVAC engineering analysis, supporting both English (IP) and Metric (SI) units.
• Building Operator Certification (BOC) Training Professional certification training program for building operators covering energy efficiency best practices, building systems operations, and industry standards.
• SHIELD Leadership Development Training Leadership development training program focused on sustainability and high-impact energy management strategies for building and facilities leaders.
• IPMVP M&V Training Full-day training on the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP), covering Options A, B, C, and D for measuring and verifying energy savings.

Quantifiable outcome

• 30% estimated energy savings achieved for higher education lab sustainability projects
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPG&E is a key utility partner for nmecr program offerings including CoolSave, Smart Labs, Commercial Whole Building and Public Sector Programs. kW Engineering provides NMEC M&V analysis and program delivery support.
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLBL conducts in-house energy efficiency research. kW Engineering has integrated LBNL's time-of-week and temperature model into their nmecr package for NMEC analysis.
• Seattle City LightcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSeattle City Light runs an Energy Efficiency as a Service Program where kW Engineering provides program delivery and technical expertise.
• Southern California Edison (SCE)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSCE partnership includes High opportunity projects and programs (HOPPs) offerings with public sector Performance-Based Retrofit (PBR) Program co-funded with SoCalGas.
• SoCalGascoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSoCalGas partnership includes HOPPs initiative co-funding with SCE and Commercial Restaurant Retrofit (CRR) Program.
• SDG&EcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSDG&E partners with kW Engineering for Comprehensive Energy Management Solutions (CEMS) Program for NMEC projects.
• SoCalRENcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSoCalREN partners with kW Engineering for Energy Efficiency Project Delivery Program for municipal buildings.
• Energy CoalitionminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerEnergy Coalition intends to use nmecr in current NMEC energy efficiency programs.
• SkySparkcoreTechnology or IntegrationSkySpark is the building analytics platform used by kW Engineering for fault detection, occupant comfort analysis, and ongoing commissioning services.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Franklin Energy: National energy efficiency program delivery and implementation contractor serving investor-owned utilities (including California IOUs) with M&V, retro-commissioning, and direct-install services - directly competitive with kW Engineering's Utility Program Support offering.
• Resource Innovations: Energy efficiency, decarbonization, and grid services consulting firm (formed around Nexant/iCast) executing utility programs in CA and beyond - direct competitor across M&V, program design, and electrification advisory services.
• TRC Companies: Environmental, energy, and engineering consulting firm delivering utility energy efficiency programs, retro-commissioning, and building performance services - overlapping client roster and service lines with kW Engineering.
• Willdan Group: Energy and infrastructure consulting firm with a large utility services practice providing EE program implementation, M&V, and engineering audits for California and other utilities - a direct peer in the utility program delivery space.
• CLEAResult: Large-scale energy efficiency program implementation and consulting firm delivering utility EE programs (M&V, retro-commissioning, behavioral) for PG&E, SCE, and other North American utilities - the most direct competitor to kW Engineering's utility program delivery business.

Broad incumbents

• Leidos Engineering: Large systems engineering and technical program management contractor offering energy management, building consulting, and utility program support to federal and commercial customers - broad incumbent overlapping parts of kW Engineering's portfolio.
• Cadmus: Energy and environmental consulting firm that designs and delivers utility EE programs, including M&V and behavioral savings, for IOUs across the US - competes for program design and evaluation work awarded by the same California utilities.
• ICF International: Global management, energy, and technology consulting firm with a sizable utility energy efficiency and decarbonization advisory practice - competes for the same California IOU program contracts but serves many other verticals as well.
• DNV (Energy): Independent assurance and consulting provider with a building energy services practice spanning commissioning, M&V, and standards development - adjacent peer in commercial building energy and M&V consulting.

Emerging players

• Energy Coalition: Non-profit/consulting hybrid that runs NMEC energy efficiency programs using kW Engineering's nmecr tooling and competes for utility program delivery slots - emerging/thematic peer in NMEC-enabled program delivery.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/kW-Labs/nmecr
• Xx.com/kwengineering

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about kW Engineering