The objective of this project is to overcome the most critical process and technical barriers that are impeding scaled adoption of energy management and information systems (EMIS) within Department of Defense (DoD) installations. This will be achieved by documenting and disseminating technology transfer solutions that will provide a set of “work-through” pathways to implement different types of EMIS more rapidly, along with a package of tailored guidance materials.

The DoD has already documented the benefits of EMIS through past and ongoing ESTCP demonstration projects. With aggressive energy savings mandates and an Army Installations Strategy driving toward modern, resilient, sustainable operations, EMIS can form a central pillar of efficient building operations. This project will help address key barriers (with an initial focus on the Army) to lay a foundation for scaled adoption of EMIS.

EMIS comprise a broad family of tools and services used to monitor and optimize commercial building energy use and operations. EMIS have matured over the past decade, resulting in over 100 products being available, and adoption within the commercial and public sectors is growing significantly. Installation of EMIS involves both hardware (e.g., metering, data storage, communication hardware) analytical software (installed on-site or cloud-based), and data from existing onsite heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) controls or metering. EMIS analytical capabilities fall into three main categories:

• Energy information systems: meter-level monitoring, analysis, and charting
• Fault detection and diagnostics (FDD): automatic identification of HVAC faults
• Automated system optimization: dynamic optimization of HVAC system energy usage

In the absence of EMIS, building automation systems provide simple alarms, and monthly bills can be used for annual energy benchmarking. Neither is sufficient to proactively maintain optimal comfort and energy performance, nor to meet DoD’s aggressive goals for high performance buildings.

With energy costs accounting for approximately 2% of the DoD’s annual budget, and with the DoD managing over 560,000 buildings, EMIS energy savings potential is significant. If this project helps enable long term FDD Application for just 10% of eligible buildings’ floorspace it could drive an estimated $19 million in annual energy cost savings (assuming $0.24/sq. ft. annual savings). This could be achieved at a simple payback of less than two years. Further, EMIS are an ideal complement to other high-potential technologies such as distributed energy resources, advanced building controls, and advanced energy security strategies.