Objective
Energy modeling software programs have been created as a cost-effective alternative to physical audits, which are time consuming and costly when needed for every federal facility. They do not always require a team to physically assess a building but often need hundreds of inputs to work accurately. On a building-to-building basis this may work, but at larger installations providing those inputs becomes impractical. Energy Diagnostics Investigator for Efficiency Savings (EDIFES) solves this problem by providing fully virtual audits. Only five inputs are needed (15-minute interval electricity consumption, location, square footage, number of stories, and building end use) to produce complete energy audits. The virtual audit is automated, making them inexpensive and the small number of inputs allows a large number of buildings to be entered quickly.
During this project, EDIFES performed energy audits on hundreds of buildings to ensure proper functionality and workflow. Over 250 Department of Defense (DoD) buildings received energy audits that then had their results posted to an interactive dashboard with portfolio rankings. Validation was performed on EDIFES to confirm that energy savings predictions were accurate. Several validation methods were employed. All confirmed that EDIFES’s methods worked as expected and with a high degree of accuracy.
Technology Description
EDIFES is a cloud computing application that performs virtual energy audits with time-series 15-minute interval electricity meter data. Statistical and machine learning analysis of time-series energy data allows for a building’s loads to be disaggregated and subsequently potential savings calculated. These statistical and machine learning algorithms are the core of EDIFES, running as a server application in the private cloud environment (CRADLE). The results from the analysis provide energy managers insights into each of their building’s behaviors, quantifiable savings, and suggested methods to achieve said savings. The portfolio of buildings is also ranked by total potential savings so that capital expenses for retrofits or other changes can be prioritized and implemented effectively.
Demonstration Results
EDIFES markers all exceed the Pareto Principle meaning that there is less than 20% error on at least 80% of buildings. The software was validated in several different ways to prove its effectiveness on a wide range of buildings. This allows for potential energy savings to be accurately determined for most buildings. Potential savings are quantified as an annual savings value which allows customers to easily weigh the value of capital improvements and system behavioral changes. EDIFES 2.0 is commercially available with virtual energy audits costing $500-$1500 per building with volume discounts and annual subscription programs available. This saves time and money in walk-through audits. Expensive detailed walk-through audits can then be targeted at buildings with big savings opportunities if desired.
Implementation Issues
The largest barrier to the demonstration of EDIFES was the lack of access to data. Advanced meter data was very difficult to obtain even with central storage repositories such as Meter Data Management System and Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command. Most DoD building data used was only made available during the last year of the project and limited commercial data had to be leveraged.