Below is the text for the Introduction to the SEED Platform video:
Across the country, an increasing number of building energy officials such as policy makers and owners are discovering that measuring the performance of their buildings is a key step towards minimizing operating costs and meeting city sustainability goals.
Energy benchmarking and transparency programs, both those that are voluntary and those that are adopted by local jurisdictions, are gaining traction in cities across the US as a way to gather building performance data.
What benchmarking policies really provide to a community is access to information. Many local jurisdictions are also looking at a suite of other policies and programs to build on the foundation of benchmarking and drive the actions that will achieve energy savings.
This mix of policies and programs means that building officials may soon be dealing with a range of data from a number of diverse sources and in diverse formats such as those shown here. Existing benchmarking tools like EPA’s Portfolio Manager are not designed to handle all of these types of data.
The Standard Energy Efficiency Data Platform, or SEED, aims to provide a central repository to better manage this growing flow of data.
Developed by the U.S. Department of Energy in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, SEED is designed to help local jurisdictions manage compliance with benchmarking ordinances by storing the many forms of building energy information in one trusted place.
Jurisdictions manage their own instance of SEED and can use the platform to track compliance, and control data sharing with outside organizations, the public, and with other tools such as the Buildings Performance Database.
SEED has many tools and functions built into the platform to help local jurisdictions manage building energy information. Users can sort building records from the master building list by different fields such as square footage or use type, and you can also view individual records to get a more complete picture for that building. Once inside a building record, you can view things like contact information and change a building’s label to track compliance.
After reviewing individual building information, groups of buildings can be pulled into projects within SEED to manage compliance with mandatory building policies through record labeling and reporting deadlines. Projects can also be created for more informal situations that require focusing on a small group of buildings within a larger portfolio.
SEED is also able to help translate that data across platforms: Data stored within the platform is translated the Building Energy Data Exchange Specification, or BEDES, which is a building energy data dictionary developed by DOE to allow for easier transfer and comparison of building energy metrics through standard terms, definitions, and field formats.
The platform also has the ability to share data within organizations by setting permissions for each user, as well as selecting which data fields can be viewed by different “sub-organizations” to create greater protection around sensitive data. This will be useful for city agencies that need to share sensitive data with other city entities, or for county governments who are managing building information for multiple cities.
SEED is designed to create flexibility for cities that need to tailor their data solutions to fit their programs. Developers can use the Application Programming Interface (API) to create additional functionality for the platform, such as advanced dashboards and data visualization tools. Because the platform is open source, developers can maintain these proprietary platform add-ons while still contributing bug fixes to the core code.
The API is also what allows users to customize data sharing between SEED and other tools, such as the Buildings Performance Database, or with the public. Automatic connections such as these can save on staff time and limit human error.
For more information on the SEED platform, including information on how to receive a test account, please visit the DOE SEED webpage.