The Greatest Barriers to Building Electrification

11/13/2025

Facility managers are looking to make improvements to their building’s decarbonization efforts and energy efficiency. This shift is also making more managers consider their legacy systems — and the reality that they will need to rethink them entirely if they continue to rely on fossil fuels. Electrification of these systems can pave one potential path forward to achieve their energy-saving goals. 

However, that path will have hurdles for managers to overcome. Panelists at Chicago Build 2025 agreed that the overall journey requires planning and culture change. 

“Electrification of the buildings provides us with the transition from what we are at today to renewable energy applications and decarbonization,” says Mehdi Jalayerian, senior principal at Stantec. “Currently, a lot of buildings have systems that utilize fossil fuel locally. As we move into decarbonization, we’re changing our infrastructure and electrical supply to be more electrical. The buildings must be up and running to be adaptable to those – this is obviously a big, big challenge for existing buildings.” 

Many of these existing buildings are also older ones that have natural gas as a heat source which needs to be converted to adapt to a localized and decentralized electricity supply, says Jalayerian. This is so the buildings can utilize the renewable energy that the grid is supplying them. 

“Anybody that’s working on their greenhouse gas reductions or carbon neutral goals – they’re only possible if you electrify everything,” says Kate Buczek, C.E.M., energy manager for the Cook County Bureau of Asset Management. “There's no offset market for gas. You really need those renewable energy certificates or to install renewable energy on site to fully decarbonize and be carbon neutral.” 

Electrification also improves operational efficiency and future-proofs facilities as grids transition to renewables. Yet even as momentum grows, significant barriers remain. 

Barriers to electrification 

Electrification comes with technical and financial challenges for existing commercial buildings. Many older structures weren’t designed to handle the electrical loads required by today’s systems.  

“So, one of the big challenges is how do we convert those buildings to electricity?” says Jalayerian. “Especially high-rise buildings, there’s obviously an issue with space provision and availability. There are also issues with smaller buildings and their roof spaces to accommodate electrified equipment. There are many challenges that need to be overcome.” 

Some Chicago Housing Authority properties, for example, still operate with 60-amp panels, which would require major overhauls to support all-electric systems, says Mahesh Mohnalkar, deputy chief – capital construction for the Chicago Housing Authority. 

On the financial side, fluctuating energy markets and capacity costs can make the business case difficult in the short-term. Buczek says that the energy transmission company PJM’s capacity costs being more than eight times higher than usual is an increase expected to persist for several years. 

“How can we still make that business case for electrification?” says Buczek. “We can think about a phased approach. So, think about implementing electric technology in a year when the market is less expensive, so those operational costs won’t be burdensome to a building. We can also frame the business case around resiliency.” 

Funding remains a major hurdle, and this is especially true for public agencies managing large portfolios. Partnerships and alternative financing options, such as guaranteed energy performance contracting, are helping agencies pursue electrification despite budget constraints, Mohnalkar says. 

Even still, the panelists agreed that these obstacles make planning even more critical – not less. The key, they say, is to approach electrification as a long-term, data-driven process. 

“This kind of work is not a one-time conversion,” says Jalayerian. “It’s a culture that we need to do, and it requires planning. It’s something that you need to plan for a long time and slowly chip away at. This is so we can ultimately convert and be ready when we’re connecting to renewable sources that are more prominent in the infrastructure.” 

Jeff Wardon, Jr., is the assistant editor of the facilities market.