BOULDER, Colo. — A surge in growth in energy-efficient building design, along with the increased complexity of construction projects, is accelerating demand for building commissioning services, which include not only initial building commissioning, but also recommissioning, retrocommissioning, and continuous commissioning. According to a new report from Pike Research, a part of Navigant’s Energy Practice, the annual market value of these services will double over the next eight years, growing from $2.2 billion worldwide in 2012 to $4.4 billion in 2020.

Building commissioning services ensure that a commercial building’s equipment and control systems are performing as designed and that there are procedures in place to maintain high performance over time.

“Commissioning helps building owners achieve the full value of their investments in energy efficiency and green building technology,” said Eric Bloom, senior research analyst. “Over time, software-as-a-service models that offer continuous commissioning will become a more attractive delivery model, ensuring that green buildings maintain top performance well into the future.”

Continuous commissioning, which monitors and provides fault detection and diagnosis within a portfolio of buildings, is transforming the hands-on commissioning business model into a software-based service, according to the report. The advent of IT developers and systems integrators with cloud-based continuous commissioning capabilities has added new competitors to the traditional players in the industry. By 2020, continuous commissioning will still represent only about 5 percent of the total worldwide market, in terms of revenue, but continuous commissioning services will grow at a significantly faster rate than other forms of commissioning.

Publication date: 11/12/2012