Seth McKinney · Building decarbonization · Energy efficiency · Performance standards
Throughline Energy is my independent practice. I add senior capacity and expertise to engineering and energy-management firms, as well as the cities, public agencies, and utilities they serve, as a subconsultant, direct advisor, or fractional leader. My work spans building performance standards, energy efficiency and electrification program strategy and implementation, and portfolio planning.
Delivered through prior roles at Pierce County, Stillwater Energy, Ecotope, and Resource Innovations.
Institutions set energy and decarbonization goals. Programs, budgets, and buildings have to deliver them. I close that gap, turning policy, code requirements, and technical findings into decisions people can fund, administer, implement, and measure, whether I'm leading or serving as a subject matter expert on an engineering team.
You need senior capacity without adding a new hire: someone who has led multi-year energy and efficiency projects across large building portfolios, shaped strategy for emerging electrification technologies, advised on clean energy planning and policy, designed and delivered utility programs, and built tools for energy performance analysis and compliance. I bring that capacity to your project team as a specialist partner or subconsultant, and Throughline’s deep bench of SMEs, developed through years of consulting work, is available when the scope requires it.
What I do
Clean energy and decarbonization plans; policy and code development; regulatory and compliance strategy; portfolio prioritization and capital phasing; and funding pathways. When policy or code is the lever, I draft implementable provisions and support staff through review and adoption.
FOR PUBLIC AGENCIES · UTILITIES · PLANNING AND ENGINEERING TEAMS
Program and measure design, from qualified products lists and RTF measure coordination to incentive structures and screening tools; implementation plans and delivery models that engage upstream, midstream, and downstream market actors, from manufacturers and distributors to trade allies, direct install and SEM cohorts; income-qualified and zonal electrification pilots; market-transformation convening; and programs designed to be evaluated from day one.
FOR UTILITIES · PROGRAM IMPLEMENTERS · PUBLIC AGENCIES
Building performance standard assessments and compliance advisory; benchmarking and utility-data review; energy management and O&M planning; and measurement strategy and portfolio analysis. Threshold, my web-based BPS compliance and billing analysis tool, supports much of this work by helping teams review bills, document corrections, analyze performance, and prepare draft reports for professional review. The engineering team delivers audit-grade engineering and design, and compliance attestations remain with the responsible professional unless I am engaged as the Qualified Person.
Building performance standards: find a compliance teamFOR PORTFOLIOS · ENGINEERING TEAMS · QUALIFIED PERSONS
HOW TO BRING ME IN
Most of my work is as a subconsultant or partner on a firm’s team. I help teams set strategy and deliver it: program and policy design, planning and decarbonization studies, project and program management, facilitation, coaching, and implementation support. Deliverables include compliance assessments, billing analysis, benchmarking and data reviews, M&V, and energy management and O&M plans. Your engineers keep the audits, calibrated energy models, and design.
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EVERY ENGAGEMENT STARTS THE SAME WAY
Selected work
Each card names my role. I delivered these engagements while leading Ecotope's decarbonization advisory practice, alongside the engineers and partners credited here.
See all workA tiered zoning incentive that trades floor area and height for all-electric, low-EUI buildings, built on Washington's Clean Buildings standard and prescriptive code compliance. Adopted into the zoning code in 2024 and carried into Redmond 2050 in 2025.
MY ROLE Program and code designer; drafted the building-performance-based incentive provisions and supported the City's sustainability and planning staff through review and adoption.
Thirteen meetings over 13 months with the Superintendent's 27-member task force, producing 80 recommended actions across policy, buildings, mobility, and waste and materials, toward fossil-free operations by 2040 for a district of more than 100 buildings and 10 million sq ft.
MY ROLE Project lead, task force co-facilitator, project manager, and lead author, responsible for the emissions roadmap for buildings and fleet and the wedge analysis; co-developed the action prioritization with Cascadia Consulting Group, the lead facilitator; DKS supported fleet planning.
Clean Buildings compliance planning for a Tier 1 campus: roles and EUI targets, the energy management plan and O&M program, equipment and KPI inventory, and the capital plan that sequences measures with the ASHRAE Level 2 audit.
MY ROLE Project manager and, with Ecotope engineer Morgan Heater, Qualified Person for the energy management plan and O&M program, supporting Siemens as the prime implementation partner; Ecotope's engineers supported the ASHRAE Level 2 audit, billing analysis, and controls review.
Throughlines
THRESHOLD · BENCHMARKING DATA REVIEW, BILLING ANALYSIS AND BPS SCREENING
Export benchmarking data from Portfolio Manager and upload it to Threshold. Threshold flags bills outside the meter’s normal range for you to review and correct, and records each correction with the original figure, the justification, and who made it, so the record doubles as a list of what to fix in Portfolio Manager. From the cleaned bills, it fits Guideline 14 weather-normalized baselines and splits each fuel’s load into cold-responsive, warm-responsive, and base load, so you can see how much energy follows cold and warm weather; the cold-weather share is where a heat pump plan starts. It then screens each building against its applicable building performance standards for gap, deadline, and penalty exposure, and once a scope is priced, shows how much penalty each dollar of work avoids. Last, it drafts the report: every correction, with the analytics and charts behind the findings. Your Qualified Person reviews it, then prepares, signs, and files the compliance documentation.
License it for your team, or bring me in as a subconsultant or the Qualified Person. Selected licensees also receive owner referrals from this site.
Writing
Also: the Multifamily Load Shift Evaluation for Seattle City Light, King County's Energize! ductless heat pump guidelines, and BPA papers on plumbing-code barriers and the Ecosim sensitivity analysis. Talks at CEE's Industry Partners Meeting, CEDMC's Fall Conference, and an AESP event in Seattle on building performance standards.
About
I have held most of the jobs on the other side of my own proposals. I re-established and ran Pierce County's resource conservation program across 2.5M sq ft and more than 50 sites. I coached strategic energy management for commercial and industrial customers at Stillwater Energy. I built and led Ecotope's decarbonization advisory practice from 2021 to 2024, co-authoring eight technical reports and drafting the green building code provisions the City of Redmond adopted. Most recently, I directed a $16M electrification portfolio at Resource Innovations, delivering PG&E's neighborhood-scale and income-qualified electrification pilots.
I started Throughline Energy for the part of this work that stalls even when the engineering is sound: budgets, policy, procurement, program design, and organizational decisions. Getting a goal through those is the center of my practice.
HOW I WORK
SELECTED ORGANIZATIONS SERVED THROUGH PRIOR ROLES
City of Redmond · City of Bellingham · Seattle Public Schools · Seattle Convention Center · City of Seattle Office of Sustainability & Environment · King County · Tacoma Power · Seattle City Light · Bonneville Power Administration · Pacific Gas & Electric
DELIVERED THROUGH
Ecotope · Resource Innovations · Stillwater Energy · Pierce County, as its energy manager
Organization names identify prior delivered work and do not imply endorsement of Throughline Energy.
Contact
Send a note about the pursuit, project, or question. I read every message myself and reply within two business days, or you can book a 30-minute call.