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Extracted Content
o Data center IT equipment and electrical loss component when the project’s primary
property type is not a data center
o All other process energy used to support a manufacturing, industrial, or commercial
activity other than conditioning spaces and maintaining comfort and amenities for the occupants of a building
Manufacturing or industrial facilities, specialty laboratories, stadiums, and airports are examples of building types often classified as high process load buildings.
Source Energy Conversion Factors for Options 2 and 3
The terms “source energy” and “source energy conversion factor” referenced below may be used interchangeably with the corresponding terms “primary energy” and “primary energy factor” (PEF) commonly used in the European Union.
Source energy is defined as the site energy plus the estimated energy consumed or lost in the extraction, processing, and transportation of primary energy forms such as coal, oil, natural gas, biomass, and nuclear fuel; energy consumed in conversion to electricity or thermal energy; and energy consumed or lost in transmission and distribution to the building site.
Source energy conversion factors must be at least one for all electricity and combustible fuel sources.
ELECTRICITY AND FOSSIL FUELS FOR PROJECTS IN THE U.S. AND CANADA
Projects in the U.S. and Canada must use the default source energy conversion factors for fossil fuels and grid-purchased electricity, which are based on the national average site-tosource energy conversion factors for the project location. These factors are not adjustable with custom factors.
ELECTRICITY AND FOSSIL FUELS FOR OTHER PROJECT LOCATIONS
For fossil fuels and grid-purchased electricity, projects in other countries must use either the default U.S. source energy conversion factors or the most recent published national average source energy conversion factors for the project’s country, determined consistently with the definition of source energy above. Alternatively, projects in Europe may use the current default factor from the EU directive (1.9 for electricity as of this publication). [68]
68 Directive (EU) 2023/1791 of the European Parliament and of the Council of September 13, 2023 on energy efficiency and amending Regulation (EU) 2023/955 (recast) (Text with EEA relevance), https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2023/1791/.
U.S. Green Building Council LEED v5 Reference Guide for Operations and Maintenance, April 2025 Launch Edition 121