By Monica Kanojia
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will launch its Smart Energy Analytics Campaign in October 2016, having previewed the campaign at the biannual Better Buildings Summit last week. Attended by leading organizations in key market sectors working toward decreasing their energy consumption through application of energy efficient technologies and management strategies, over 900 participants at the Better Buildings Summit engaged in dialogue focused on sharing proven approaches and future opportunities to achieve a 20 percent reduction in energy intensity within buildings over the next 20 years. Highlighted as one of the most effective ways to achieve this goal was the utilization of building energy analytics to determine where energy-cost saving opportunities are available.
Smart Energy Analytics Campaign
The Smart Energy Analytics (SEA) Campaign (the Campaign) is analogous to that of the Alliance to Save Energy’s Systems Efficiency Initiative (SEI), in that it emphasizes the use of Energy Management and Information Systems (EMIS) technologies and monitoring-based commissioning strategies to determine how building systems are working together and where opportunities to cut energy consumption and improve overall building performance exist. In fact, having robust analytics and controls is one of the five key strategies outlined in the newly released SEI Sum of its Parts report.
The Campaign’s aim is to incorporate building energy analytics into overall long-term energy management strategies, and to increase market uptake of EMIS technologies – a broad and rapidly evolving family of tools that monitor, analyze and control building energy use and system performance. The Campaign aims to do this by providing technical assistance, guidance and recognition for best practices that cut through the complexity of EMIS options to find the best fit. Involvement is encouraged from those who are hands-on in building operations and maintenance including building owners, facility managers, energy managers and operators.
What is EMIS?
It’s imperative to understand what EMIS technologies are in order to understand their importance to overall energy consumption reduction goals. As mentioned, EMIS technologies are used to monitor, analyze, and control building energy use and performance. Technologies utilized within EMIS include benchmarking and utility bill tracking software, energy information systems (EIS), building automation systems, submetering, fault detection and diagnostic tools, and automated system optimization software.
Join the Campaign!
As a participant, you will learn how to best utilize your metering data to achieve optimal energy cost savings.
You will also receive the following:
- Technical assistance from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory building energy experts, who can help you to answer these questions:
• How to justify an EMIS to your management
• How to set up and configure an EMIS
• How to take action from your energy data - A chance to win an award and be nationally recognized for exemplary energy savings
- Membership in a cohort/peer network with other participants to share best practices
- Guidance on implementing cost-effective energy savings
Pledge today to share your plans to implement EMIS within one, or several, of your buildings and implement at least one energy saving measure as determined through analyzing EMIS data. You will have the opportunity to present to your peers the results of your EMIS implementation and to show how these changes have impacted energy management and consumption levels within your building(s).
The Smart Energy Analytics Campaign is a great platform to learn about and utilize Energy Management and Information Systems technologies to identify energy-savings opportunities and improve overall building performance.