What the affordable apartment building electric upgrade rebate pays
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power runs an affordable apartment building electric upgrade rebate called the Comprehensive Affordable Multifamily Retrofits program, or CAMR. It pays a property owner for replacing at least one piece of gas burning equipment with an electric version, a gas heating and air conditioning system for an electric one, a gas water heater for an electric heat pump water heater, or a gas stove for an electric induction cooktop, a stovetop that heats pots with a magnetic field instead of a flame. LADWP pays by the pollution the swap avoids, in dollars per metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent, a measure that combines several heat trapping gases into one number. The rate depends on how many units the building has, and whether the resulting savings reduce the owner energy bill or the tenant energy bill. A building of 5 to 64 units earns 5,400 dollars per metric ton when savings reduce the owner bill and 6,750 dollars when they reduce the tenant bill. A building of 65 or more units earns 6,200 dollars and 7,750 dollars for the same 2 cases.
Show the numbers
| 65 or more units, tenant bill | 7,750 |
| 5 to 64 units, tenant bill | 6,750 |
| 65 or more units, owner bill | 6,200 |
| 5 to 64 units, owner bill | 5,400 |
Which buildings qualify
A building must clear several rules to use the rebate. It needs 5 or more units. At least 66% of its households must earn at or below 80% of area median income, the income level that marks the middle of what households earn in an area, and the building must sit inside what the state calls a Disadvantaged Community. LADWP terms and conditions define that term precisely, a census tract scored at or above the 75th percentile by CalEnviroScreen, the state pollution and hardship scoring tool. The project must also cut at least 5% of the building electrical energy use.
Show the numbers
| Share of households at or below the income limit required | 66 |
| Area median income limit used for eligibility | 80 |
| Minimum required electrical savings | 5 |
What a building must keep doing after taking the money
An owner who accepts the CAMR incentive must keep the same low income household mix that qualified the building for 10 years after the incentive is paid. Funding is limited and handed out on a first come first served basis, so LADWP states plainly that a payment is not guaranteed until it is approved. Once an owner reserves an incentive, LADWP holds the funds for 24 months, and can cancel an unfinished project and return the money to the program fund after that window closes. These are 2 separate clocks, a 10 year commitment starting after payment, and a 24 month deadline running before it.
The solar add on that shares savings with tenants
CAMR also carries a solar add on. Through an arrangement called Virtual Net Energy Metering, an owner can install solar panels on a multifamily building and sell the power to LADWP, sharing the credit across the building many separate electric meters instead of just one. LADWP requires that at least 40% of the money from those solar sales go to the tenants living in the building, not just the owner. That 40% tenant share appears only in the program own solar addendum document, not in its main description, and it is the detail that keeps CAMR from being a rebate that helps only the property owner.
For a Los Angeles property manager weighing whether to apply, the incentive rate and the 10 year condition rest on the same 2 facts, how many units the building has, and whose energy bill the electrification savings actually reduce.