EMIS ReportDesign-Prelim 2020sep11 - Flipbook - Page 20
in-house review of EMIS analysis and reporting
to identify issues, implementing a management
process for taking action to correct issues, and using
the EMIS to document energy and/or cost savings
LESS COMMON MBCx ACTIVITIES: Staff or
occupant recognition for energy savings efforts,
and an EMIS training program for in-house staff to
maintain ongoing energy management processes
While the data inputs to EMIS are generally
a combination of 15-minute and hourly data,
EMIS outputs can be reviewed by staff as varying
frequencies based on need. Figure 6 shows that FDD
users most commonly review the outputs weekly,
whereas EIS users most commonly review outputs
monthly or daily. The EIS was often used both to
conduct daily electric load analysis and to prepare for
monthly energy team meetings and reports.
While a review frequency of daily or weekly is
desirable to benefit from the real-time results of
analytics, constraints on operations and maintenance
(O&M) staff time may lead to monthly review, either
in-house or through an MBCx service provider. Since
notification of emergency-type faults are generally
available through the BAS directly (e.g., a chiller is
off-line), the issues found through an FDD may not
be urgent from a safety and comfort perspective. The
FDD software can assess the severity of the faults
and determine how long they have occurred, so that
responses can be prioritized for whatever frequency of
action is desired.
3. FINDINGS
3. SMART ENERGY ANALYTICS CAMPAIGN RESULTS
FIGURE 6: Frequency of EMIS review by
EMIS type
(n = 61)
EIS
FDD
25
Number of Participants
ASO is not yet prevalent in the market generally, and
was implemented by only two Campaign participants,
and they also had EIS and/or FDD installed. We do not
report costs or savings for ASO since there are only
two data points.
EIS functionality was most utilized by energy
managers. Organizations with both FDD and EIS
tended to focus on the FDD functionality due to
the detailed recommendations provided. The FDD
implementations that integrated meter data analytics
were categorized as EIS + FDD in Figure 5 (previous
page). However, since the software applications were
primarily FDD solutions, we have combined the FDD
and EIS + FDD categories for the cost and savings
analysis in the remainder of this report. Campaign
participants implemented products from 40 different
EMIS vendors, which points to the breadth of product
type covered by this study.
Most organizations needed fewer than six months
to install and configure their
Participants
EMIS. A few organizations
implemented
experienced significant challenges
products from
getting meters connected and
communicating, with multiple
40 different
years required to get all the issues
EMIS software
resolved and the EMIS in use.
providers
For example, a large campus
may be integrating meters and sub-meters for multiple
fuels (electric, natural gas, chilled water, hot water,
steam), with many different meter vendors and
vintages across the campus.
The use of data and software in combination with
an overarching defined energy management process
is critical in realizing the value of EMIS. Almost all
organizations had an energy management team
mostly made up of facility engineers or technicians
and energy managers. The energy managers tended
to lead the analysis process, sometimes supported
by a consultant or service contractor. Just over half
the organizations contracted with a service provider to
support their use of EMIS, and more than half of the
energy management teams used a formalized MBCx
process that included continuous analysis (rather than
periodic review).
The participating organizations that implemented
MBCx provided information on their scope of activities:
FDD
EIS
20
15
10
5
0
COMMON MBCX ACTIVITIES: Commissioning
the EMIS to verify data accuracy and configuration,
Berkeley Lab | Proving the Business Case for Building Analytics
7
8
Daily
16
10
9
3
Monthly
Quarterly
5
Weekly
3
EMIS Review Frequency
18
