10 research outputs found
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Development of a Model Specification for Performance MonitoringSystems for Commercial Buildings
The paper describes the development of a model specification for performance monitoring systems for commercial buildings. The specification focuses on four key aspects of performance monitoring: (1) performance metrics; (2) measurement system requirements; (3) data acquisition and archiving; and (4) data visualization and reporting. The aim is to assist building owners in specifying the extensions to their control systems that are required to provide building operators with the information needed to operate their buildings more efficiently and to provide automated diagnostic tools with the information required to detect and diagnose faults and problems that degrade energy performance. The paper reviews the potential benefits of performance monitoring, describes the specification guide and discusses briefly the ways in which it could be implemented. A prototype advanced visualization tool is also described, along with its application to performance monitoring. The paper concludes with a description of the ways in which the specification and the visualization tool are being disseminated and deployed
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Market transformation lessons learned from an automated demand response test in the Summer and Fall of 2003
A recent pilot test to enable an Automatic Demand Response system in California has revealed several lessons that are important to consider for a wider application of a regional or statewide Demand Response Program. The six facilities involved in the site testing were from diverse areas of our economy. The test subjects included a major retail food marketer and one of their retail grocery stores, financial services buildings for a major bank, a postal services facility, a federal government office building, a state university site, and ancillary buildings to a pharmaceutical research company. Although these organizations are all serving diverse purposes and customers, they share some underlying common characteristics that make their simultaneous study worthwhile from a market transformation perspective. These are large organizations. Energy efficiency is neither their core business nor are the decision makers who will enable this technology powerful players in their organizations. The management of buildings is perceived to be a small issue for top management and unless something goes wrong, little attention is paid to the building manager's problems. All of these organizations contract out a major part of their technical building operating systems. Control systems and energy management systems are proprietary. Their systems do not easily interact with one another. Management is, with the exception of one site, not electronically or computer literate enough to understand the full dimensions of the technology they have purchased. Despite the research team's development of a simple, straightforward method of informing them about the features of the demand response program, they had significant difficulty enabling their systems to meet the needs of the research. The research team had to step in and work directly with their vendors and contractors at all but one location. All of the participants have volunteered to participate in the study for altruistic reasons, that is, to help find solutions to California's energy problems. They have provided support in workmen, access to sites and vendors, and money to participate. Their efforts have revealed organizational and technical system barriers to the implementation of a wide scale program. This paper examines those barriers and provides possible avenues of approach for a future launch of a regional or statewide Automatic Demand Response Program
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Summary and early findings from a second generation information monitoring and diagnostic system
Private sector commercial office buildings are challenging environments for energy efficiency projects. This challenge is related to the complexity of business environments that involve ownership, operation, and tenant relationships. This research project was developed to examine the environment for building operations and identify causes of inefficient use of energy related to technical and organizational issues. This paper discusses a second-generation Information Monitoring and Diagnostic System (IMDS) installed at a leased office building in Sacramento, California. The underlying principle of this project is that high quality building performance data can help show where energy is being used and how buildings systems actually perform. Such data are an important first step toward improving building energy efficiency. This project has demonstrated that the IMDS is valuable to the building operators at the Sacramento site. The building operators not only accept the technology, but it has become the core of their day-to-day building control concepts. One objective of this project was to evaluate the costs and benefits of the IMDS. The system cost about $0.70 per square foot, which includes the design, hardware, software, and installation, which is about 30% less than the previous IMDS in San Francisco. A number of operational problems have been identified with the IMDS
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Development and evaluation of fully automated demand response in large facilities
This report describes the results of a research project to develop and evaluate the performance of new Automated Demand Response (Auto-DR) hardware and software technology in large facilities. Demand Response (DR) is a set of activities to reduce or shift electricity use to improve electric grid reliability, manage electricity costs, and ensure that customers receive signals that encourage load reduction during times when the electric grid is near its capacity. The two main drivers for widespread demand responsiveness are the prevention of future electricity crises and the reduction of electricity prices. Additional goals for price responsiveness include equity through cost of service pricing, and customer control of electricity usage and bills. The technology developed and evaluated in this report could be used to support numerous forms of DR programs and tariffs. For the purpose of this report, we have defined three levels of Demand Response automation. Manual Demand Response involves manually turning off lights or equipment; this can be a labor-intensive approach. Semi-Automated Response involves the use of building energy management control systems for load shedding, where a preprogrammed load shedding strategy is initiated by facilities staff. Fully-Automated Demand Response is initiated at a building or facility through receipt of an external communications signal--facility staff set up a pre-programmed load shedding strategy which is automatically initiated by the system without the need for human intervention. We have defined this approach to be Auto-DR. An important concept in Auto-DR is that a facility manager is able to ''opt out'' or ''override'' an individual DR event if it occurs at a time when the reduction in end-use services is not desirable. This project sought to improve the feasibility and nature of Auto-DR strategies in large facilities. The research focused on technology development, testing, characterization, and evaluation relating to Auto-DR. This evaluation also included the related decisionmaking perspectives of the facility owners and managers. Another goal of this project was to develop and test a real-time signal for automated demand response that provided a common communication infrastructure for diverse facilities. The six facilities recruited for this project were selected from the facilities that received CEC funds for new DR technology during California's 2000-2001 electricity crises (AB970 and SB-5X)
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Early evaluation of a second generation information monitoring and diagnostic system
Private sector commercial office buildings are challenging environments for energy efficiency projects. This challenge is related to the complexity of business environments that involve ownership, operation, and tenant relationships. Whether it is poor quality design, inefficient operations, degradation of equipment over time, or merely the increasing use of energy by tenants and inattention from landlords, commercial office building energy use continues to increase. This research project was developed to examine the environment for building operations and identify causes of inefficient use of energy related to technical and organizational issues. This report discusses a second-generation Information Monitoring and Diagnostic System (IMDS) installed at a leased office building in Sacramento, California. The report begins with a brief summary of the IMDS research at the previous building, followed by a discussion of the building selection process, the IMDS design and installation, recent use of the IMDS, costs and benefits, and fault detection and diagnostic research using the IMDS. A web site describes the IMDS in detail (see imds.lbl.gov). The underlying principle of this research project is that high quality building performance data can help show where energy is being used and how buildings systems actually perform is an important first step toward improving building energy efficiency. The project utilizes a high-quality monitoring system that has been developed during the past decade by a partnership between LBNL and private industry. This research project has been successful in demonstrating that the IMDS is tremendously valuable to the building operators at the Sacramento site. The building operators not only accept the technology, but it has become the core of their day-to-day building control concepts. The innovative property management company, Jones Lang LaSalle, is interested in installing more sites to determine if the system could provide an economic platform for regional operations. One objective of this project was to install the IMDS and evaluate the costs and benefits of its use. The costs have been evaluated. The system cost about $0.70 per square foot, which includes the design, hardware, software, and installation, which is about 30% lower than the previous system in San Francisco. A number of operational problems have been identified with the IMDS as described in the report. Potential energy savings from addressing problems identified by the application of the IMDS have not yet been quantified, although the IMDS has been an important tool to the operations staff to help better assess planned future retrofits
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Development and Testing of an Information Monitoring and Diagnostics System for Large Commercial Buildings
Proceedings of the 1998 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Pacific Grove, CA. Large commercial buildings generally do not operate at economically achievable levels of energy efficiency. Performance monitoring projects have shown whole-building energy savings of 20% or more through improved operation and maintenance practices. The opportunity for O&M savings is related to systemic problems associated with the lack of feedback available from current Energy Management and Control Systems (EMCS). Today’s EMCS are designed for control, with limited capabilities in sensing, archiving, data analysis, diagnostics, and data visualization. This paper discusses a multi-year, multi-institutional project to develop and demonstrate an Information Monitoring and Diagnostics System (IMDS). The system is designed to address common O&M problems and the needs of office building owners and property managers to address these problems. The IMDS includes about 50 points of whole-building and cooling plant data, plus a set of standard diagnostics plots to evaluate key performance metrics and curves. Five unique features of the project are (1) sophisticated building operators and engineers as users, (2) permanent installation, (3) highquality sensing, (4) high-frequency data archives, and (5) top-down design (i.e., whole building, system, and component data). The system does not provide control fimctions. We review the installation and early results from the use of the IMDS. An office builcling demonstration site was selected because of the technical reputation and interest of the chief engineer and on-site operator. We also discuss the technology adoption process and decisions involved in such innovations
Recommended from our members
Development and Testing of an Information Monitoring and Diagnostics System for Large Commercial Buildings
Proceedings of the 1998 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Pacific Grove, CA. Large commercial buildings generally do not operate at economically achievable levels of energy efficiency. Performance monitoring projects have shown whole-building energy savings of 20% or more through improved operation and maintenance practices. The opportunity for O&M savings is related to systemic problems associated with the lack of feedback available from current Energy Management and Control Systems (EMCS). Today’s EMCS are designed for control, with limited capabilities in sensing, archiving, data analysis, diagnostics, and data visualization. This paper discusses a multi-year, multi-institutional project to develop and demonstrate an Information Monitoring and Diagnostics System (IMDS). The system is designed to address common O&M problems and the needs of office building owners and property managers to address these problems. The IMDS includes about 50 points of whole-building and cooling plant data, plus a set of standard diagnostics plots to evaluate key performance metrics and curves. Five unique features of the project are (1) sophisticated building operators and engineers as users, (2) permanent installation, (3) highquality sensing, (4) high-frequency data archives, and (5) top-down design (i.e., whole building, system, and component data). The system does not provide control fimctions. We review the installation and early results from the use of the IMDS. An office builcling demonstration site was selected because of the technical reputation and interest of the chief engineer and on-site operator. We also discuss the technology adoption process and decisions involved in such innovations
Recommended from our members
Development and testing of an information monitoring and diagnostic system for large commercial buildings
Proceedings of the 1998 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Pacific Grove, CA. Large commercial buildings generally do not operate at economically achievable levels of energy efficiency. Performance monitoring projects have shown whole-building energy savings of 20% or more through improved operation and maintenance practices. The opportunity for O&M savings is related to systemic problems associated with the lack of feedback available from current Energy Management and Control Systems (EMCS). Today’s EMCS are designed for control, with limited capabilities in sensing, archiving, data analysis, diagnostics, and data visualization. This paper discusses a multi-year, multi-institutional project to develop and demonstrate an Information Monitoring and Diagnostics System (IMDS). The system is designed to address common O&M problems and the needs of office building owners and property managers to address these problems. The IMDS includes about 50 points of whole-building and cooling plant data, plus a set of standard diagnostics plots to evaluate key performance metrics and curves. Five unique features of the project are (1) sophisticated building operators and engineers as users, (2) permanent installation, (3) highquality sensing, (4) high-frequency data archives, and (5) top-down design (i.e., whole building, system, and component data). The system does not provide control fimctions. We review the installation and early results from the use of the IMDS. An office builcling demonstration site was selected because of the technical reputation and interest of the chief engineer and on-site operator. We also discuss the technology adoption process and decisions involved in such innovations