by By Michael Chimack, PE, QCxP, CEM, PMP — While technological advances have certainly made it easier to optimize building performance, a comprehensive energy strategy can have a far greater impact on achieving operational savings. This strategic process, which is often overlooked, should include all major stakeholders and should leverage the expertise of well-trained professionals. An effective energy spend reduction plan will account for the business’ overarching goals and its operations, and will rely on a strong commitment to the entire energy management process.
What is a Comprehensive Energy Strategy?
A comprehensive energy strategy is designed to control the rising costs of energy, reduce environmental footprints and increase value and competitiveness of buildings and infrastructure. Of a typical building’s total lifecycle cost, approximately 32 percent results from energy consumption during the operational phase of the building; thus, even minor energy conservation projects can have a major financial impact. A combination of Existing Building Commissioning (EBCx) and Monitoring-based Commissioning (MBCx) can provide an excellent opportunity to improve the overall performance of a building and should be part of any sound comprehensive energy strategy.
A Holistic Energy Strategy includes Five Key Phases
The holistic nature of a comprehensive energy strategy relies on a combination of people, processes and technologies and is based on five phases that are inherently recursive and concurrent.
- Plan — actionable, strategic advice to meet goals and improve performance
- Evaluate — identification of improvement areas
- Implement — turnkey delivery of improvements and applied expertise
- Service — maintain and continually improve performance
- Measure — applied technology to ensure savings goals are continually met and additional improvements are identified
How Commissioning fits into a Comprehensive Energy Strategy
By systematically investigating, analyzing and optimizing building performance, corporations can take advantage of many commissioning benefits, including greater building and occupant comfort, improved employee productivity and enhanced sustainability.
Building operating costs increase over time, and EBCx can generate some relatively quick energy and operational savings by taking corrective actions that reduce energy demand and consumption. Without a holistic commitment to maintaining these corrective actions, building costs can eventually rise to original levels. Adding MBCx to the approach can instead perpetuate the savings generated by EBCx, and even generate new energy and operational savings.
EBCx and MBCx require some up-front cost and investment of time and resources, but the cost of these measures will be lower than the value they add to the holistic energy strategy.
Commissioning identifies both demand and supply side concerns with respect to energy and operational performance through each of the five phases:
- EBCx involves the creation of a strategic approach and plan for building performance, the evaluation and assessment of existing performance and implementation of approved corrective actions. EBCx also lays the groundwork for ongoing service and relies on consistent use of data analysis and measurement.
- MBCx involves the implementation of improvement measures along with ongoing service and insights necessary for full transparency, measurement and reporting.
People, Process and Technology provide the Best Commissioning Approach for a Comprehensive Energy Strategy
Taken individually, people, processes and technology all offer advantages for companies looking to commissioning as part of a comprehensive energy strategy. Like any synergistic approach, however, no single element represents a complete solution to a complicated problem.
- People: Facilities rely on trained and available human resources to design and implement any energy strategy for facility improvement initiatives. But even the best team of people won’t be enough without the right processes and technology.
- Process: A comprehensive energy strategy involves a synergistic, multi-phased approach, and no single phase can stand on its own. Effective processes still demand the right people and technologies to work efficiently.
- Technology: Technology plays a critical supporting role in delivering a comprehensive energy strategy, and can help identify specific actions to take. Operational expertise and effective processes are required to make informed decisions and generate results.
Ultimately, an effective energy management strategy will leverage the combination of a detailed commissioning plan along with the people, processes and technologies needed to generate impactful and ongoing results.
About the Author: Michael Chimack, PE, QCxP, CEM, PMP, is a senior product manager at Siemens Industry, Inc., Infrastructure & Cities Sector, Building Technologies Division. Learn more at use www.siemens.com, click on Building Technologies.