The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) plan to regulate carbon emissions is just the latest challenge facing the U.S. electric power system. Technological innovation is disrupting old ways of doing business and accelerating grid modernization. Earlier this year, AEE released Advanced Energy Technologies for Greenhouse Gas Reduction, a report detailing the use, application, and benefits of 40 specific advanced energy technologies and services. This post is one in a series drawn from the technology profiles within that report.
Energy analytics for mass-scale building energy efficiency evaluations is a category of software solutions that determine how a building is currently consuming energy and recommend operational and retrofit measures to maximize energy savings. Energy analytics combine different types of data inputs, such as consumption or building asset data, with advanced analytics and modeling techniques to rapidly generate a unique building energy model. Leveraging big data energy analytics via the cloud saves substantial time and costs compared with the traditional manual methods of performing building assessments and audits.
Utilities, program administrators, energy service providers, government, and other building portfolio owners use energy analytics software to identify energy savings opportunities and target buildings with best potential across a portfolio, engage customers with personalized efficiency opportunities that exist in their buildings, streamline on-site energy audits and convert projects faster, and measure savings and evaluate ongoing efficiency opportunities that arise in the future. Con Edison is using Retroficiency’s energy analytics software to drive large-scale building efficiency savings in New York City, as well as to identify candidates with high potential to reduce peak demand to help the utility alleviate constrained areas of the grid
Energy analytics for buildings can help to identify areas for improvement that may go unseen by a human inspector. The analysis can also help building owners to determine where to make future efficiency investments. Most importantly, the analysis enables building owners to better understand the building’s energy usage, leading to deeper energy savings, lower bills, and increased avoided generation emissions.
