EnergyBenchmarkingHow to Compare Buildings and Meters to Spot Savings

This eBook is most relevant for energy managers and

other organization energy stakeholders tasked with

review and analysis of utility bill information. A working

knowledge of reporting needs and energy metrics is

helpful but not necessary.

This eBook explains effective benchmarking techniques

and will help you benchmark more effectively to spot

energy savings for your organization.

TABLE OF CONTENTSWhat is Energy Benchmarking?.......................................................................1

Types of Benchmarking.....................................................................................4

Keys to Quality Benchmarking......................................................................12

Helpful Benchmarking Metrics......................................................................16

Filtering Out the Noise....................................................................................27

Additional Resources......................................................................................33

About This eBook............................................................................................35

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WHAT IS ENERGY BENCHMARKING?

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Energy benchmarking is a way of deriving value from your available

energy data by comparing the performance of multiple peer group

members. It is a way of determining how a place, building, or meter

ranks in comparison with similar places, buildings or meters.

And why is that valuable? Because benchmarking is very easy, quick,

and inexpensive to perform. Benchmarking seldom requires capital

investment. It doesn’t require specialized labor or expertise. It doesn’t

require engineers and consultants. And it doesn’t require much

preparation. You can derive significant value just by tracking your

utility bills, and then benchmarking meters and buildings using the

energy information.

By comparing peers, you obtain information that can help you

prioritize energy management actions. The most problematic

buildings or meters, as determined by your benchmarking process,

would typically be the ones that you would want to audit and/or

retrofit first.

For example, suppose that you have two buildings that are very

similar. They were built on the same floor plan at about the same

time, but one ranks much lower than the other for energy efficiency.

What is Energy Benchmarking?

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Perhaps the building is being operated poorly. There could be control

problems. Benchmarking may not initially reveal specific issues,

but it does help you quickly focus your attention on the problem

building. And as you investigate, benchmarking may be able to reveal

even more. If you find a building that ranks poorly, and a preliminary

building analysis does not reveal problems with the building, then you

might dig deeper and discover a meter problem or a billing problem.

What is Energy Benchmarking?

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TYPES OF BENCHMARKING

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There are four categories of popular building energy benchmarks:

. Provided by Your Utility Vendor . ENERGY STAR Building Ratings . Industry Benchmarks . Energy Management Software

Utility Provider

The first category includes benchmarks provided by your utility

vendor. These benchmarks are supplied in the form of periodic

reports that demonstrate how you compare to other customers of

the same vendor. These types of reports can often serve as a broad

indicator of the relative efficiency of your building.

Another advantage of these reports is that you receive them for free.

However, utility-provided reports might not account for any variables

relating to your energy use. Without submetering, the report might

lack granularity. It might contain a number of estimated bills. The

benchmarking energy data might simply be raw calculations using

the meter reading and multiplier for billing periods of varying lengths.

These types of reports may spur questions, but seldom supply useful

answers. This type of benchmarking data is generally not actionable.

Types of Benchmarking

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Types of Benchmarking

ENERGY STAR Building Ratings

The second category of benchmarking reports includes ENERGY

STAR ratings. ENERGY STAR is probably the best-known building

benchmarking system. It is widely used, and some surveys suggest

that 85 percent of the adult population in the U.S. recognizes the

ENERGY STAR brand.

ENERGY STAR uses a web-based software application (Portfolio

Manager) to measure building energy efficiency on a 100-point scale

for a variety of building types. By defining your building type and

related characteristics, and by entering your building utility bill data

into Portfolio Manager, you can obtain a benchmarking comparison

with peer buildings in your geographical region. A favorable

benchmarking score (75 or above) grants eligibility to pursue official

ENERGY STAR recognition and certification, including a display

plaque for your building location.

Unfortunately, ENERGY STAR can only account for a certain

set of energy variables for a limited number of defined building

types (currently 15). And even if your building matches one of the

definitions, there might be some things that you do in your building

ENERGY STAR is probably

the best-known building

benchmarking system. It

is widely used, and some

surveys suggest that

85 percent of the adult

population in the U.S.

recognizes the ENERGY

STAR brand.

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Types of Benchmarking

that make your building unique in its peer group. ENERGY STAR

might not be able to fully account for that type of use. This might

make your rating lower, and there would be little you could do

about it.

Industry Benchmarks

In addition to government benchmarking, some industry or trade

groups supply their own benchmarks within certain spaces (K12

school system, university, industrial, etc.). Often, industry-related

benchmarking systems can be more relevant and specific to your

building portfolio, which is good.

The new ISO 50001 standard is a general purpose energy efficiency

standard that is gaining traction in a variety of spaces. The National

Association of Energy Service Companies (NAESCO) provides a

variety of energy benchmarking resources to its members. The

Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) is a trade association of more

than 16,000 professionals worldwide, providing members with a

variety of tools and resources for energy benchmarking, including

seminars on using the ENERGY STAR benchmarking tool.

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Types of Benchmarking

Other industry niche organizations may also maintain significant

benchmarking resources. SRS, an energy consultant for real estate

owners, maintains a proprietary peer benchmarking database of over

120,000 buildings that is current through May 2011. By contrast, as

of this writing, the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s CBECS

survey was still using 2003 data, although updated building surveys

are being conducted and evaluated.

Ask your trade association about available energy benchmarking

tools and opportunities.

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Types of Benchmarking

Energy Management Software

The final category of benchmarking tools/opportunities are supplied

by energy management software. We can use the EnergyCAP

energy management software Groups & Benchmarking feature to

illustrate several benchmarking characteristics and possibilities:

. Auto-Groups: These are “peer” groups of buildings and meters that are automatically created and maintained by the software. Each Auto-Group shares a common characteristic, such as vendor, commodity, customer, building primary use, or rate schedule.

. User-Defined Groups: These are configured and maintained by the user, and may include any number of buildings or meters. Popular groups include “Top 10” for energy use, cost, or use/cost per square foot.

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Benchmarking in this manner has several advantages:

. It simplifies the benchmarking setup process by automating key components.

. It organizes benchmarking efforts around appropriate energy metrics.

. It provides flexibility to account for unique situations. . It provides a basis for taking energy management actions.

The EnergyCAP

benchmarking chart to

the right is comparing

Average Cost/Day (blue

bars) for 10 peer buildings.

The orange bars represent

the total spend for the

reporting period.

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However, internal benchmarking may have limitations, especially if

your organization is relatively small.

Suppose, for instance, that you have two buildings that are

benchmarking at the same level in EnergyCAP. You might assume

that neither building has a problem because of their similarity.

However, there could be problems in both buildings. They could have

been designed poorly. If the buildings are just about the same age,

they might both have very inefficient mechanical systems that are

heating and cooling at the same time. You might miss this unless you

are comparing with a larger set of peer buildings.

That is where a tool like ENERGY STAR can be very helpful. Your

two buildings may look good to you based on several internal

peer benchmarking metrics, but what happens when you run the

ENERGY STAR comparison? A poor rating using this “external”

review may reveal that both of your buildings merit a closer look.

Types of Benchmarking

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KEYS TO QUALITY BENCHMARKING

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Keys to Quality Benchmarking

There are three keys to quality benchmarking.

The first key is to define closely-matched peer groups. It doesn’t

make any sense to benchmark a fire station with a library, even if

they were built in the same year. The example below demonstrates a

thoughtful approach to benchmarking municipal buildings based on

building types and functions.

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Keys to Quality Benchmarking

A second key is to prioritize benchmarking efforts based on

the probable return for your investment of time and money. The

following example displays building average costs per day. The blue

bars indicate the average daily cost for each included building. The

associated orange bars represent the total cost for the whole year for

the same buildings.

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As you might expect, the buildings that cost the most per day

on average, also cost the most for the whole year. This particular

comparison does not suggest a specific problem with a specific

building, but it does answer a very specific question: “What are

my ten most expensive buildings?” And this can be an important

question to answer when considering energy management project

alternatives. Benchmarking data answers that question very quickly

and definitively.

The third key is to use benchmark metrics most likely to reveal

energy issues. We could create a peer group for brick buildings

and another peer group for steel and glass buildings, but we might

quickly discover that external construction materials are not a very

helpful or actionable indicator of energy efficiency. Building primary

use (school, firehouse, dormitory, etc.) is a much more reliable energy

benchmarking metric for a peer group.

Keys to Quality Benchmarking

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HELPFUL BENCHMARKING METRICS

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Once you have grouped similar facilities together for benchmarking,

the next step is to compare them with each other using the most

revealing energy metrics. Following are several benchmarking

metrics that are particularly useful for spotting opportunities and

issues with your facilities.

Annualized Cost per Area

In the benchmarking chart on the next page, the blue bars

represent annualized costs per square foot. The orange bars

represent the total annual cost. All buildings in the group are

libraries. Cost per area is determined by dividing the total energy

costs for the benchmarking period by the square footage for the

buildings associated with the included meters.

Helpful Benchmarking Metrics

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As you can see, the library at the top of the list is averaging $7.87

per square foot—more than three times the group average of $2.27.

Should this building occupy our attention and effort? Not necessarily.

As the orange bar on the chart indicates, total spending for the

facility is only about $9,500 a year. However, the library in the number

two position is averaging about $6.10 per square foot per year. And

the associated energy spend is more than $165,000. This library

presents a more significant savings opportunity than the previous

library.

Helpful Benchmarking Metrics

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Helpful Benchmarking Metrics

Peak Demand

The next chart illustrates the benchmarking principle using peak

electric demand as the comparison metric.

In this example, the peer buildings have similar equipment in them.

Presumably they have the same kind of lighting. Why, then, does one

building require 15 watts per square foot of peak demand when the

average is less than 5 watts per square foot of peak demand? The

most likely assumption is that the building offers controllable loads

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Helpful Benchmarking Metrics

that are not being controlled. As a result, peak demand penalties

may be driving up the utility costs. This is very good actionable

information, gained from analysis of well-defined peer groups using

appropriate metrics.

Weather/Non-Weather Loads

This next example offers an excellent example of the benefits of

energy management software for providing valuable benchmarking

metrics that are difficult to obtain without it. The benchmarking chart

on the next page is providing a ranking of weather loads associated

with each building. EnergyCAP has calculated the weather load

by performing a meter-by-meter regression analysis based on the

known weather/temperature history associated with the building

location. All this data has been automatically collated for each

member of the peer group. The blue bar indicates the weather

sensitivity of the building and the orange bar represents the base

(non-weather) load.

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Helpful Benchmarking Metrics

Assuming a well-chosen peer group, we might expect the weather

load to be relatively similar. If the buildings have the same floor plan,

construction, and similar equipment, they should have the same

sensitivity to the weather. If one building has a much longer blue bar

than another, it is much more sensitive to the weather. This could

be a strong indicator of ventilation, thermostat control, simultaneous

heating/cooling, or other HVAC problems.

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Helpful Benchmarking Metrics

With this type of weather benchmarking, if the orange bar (non-

weather load) for one building is much longer than another, it would

be appropriate to look closely at lighting and equipment associated

with the building. Is lighting being used excessively? Is a nighttime

setback being consistently employed in the building?

As you gain experience in benchmarking, you can begin to ask very

insightful questions!

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Helpful Benchmarking Metrics

Average Cost/Day

The next example is a meter-based peer group. The chart is

displaying average cost per day. These are the five most expensive

meters in the organization, so this chart will demand the energy

manager’s monthly attention due solely to the magnitude of the

energy spend. Benchmarking helps make this data quickly available.

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Helpful Benchmarking Metrics

Billed Demand per Meter

The following chart is another meter-based chart, but the metric is

kilowatts of billed demand. Again, these group members are the

most expensive meters in the organization, but from a demand

perspective. If we were considering various demand reduction

strategies, these are the meters we would look at most closely.

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Helpful Benchmarking Metrics

Average Unit Cost

This next chart is ranking meters by total cost (orange bars) and also

displaying the average unit cost (blue bars).

The meter at the top is the most expensive meter. Total use

decreases from there. High-use meters are often billed by utility

companies on special high-use rates. So it would be a reasonable

expectation that the average unit cost would be lowest for the high-

use meters.

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Helpful Benchmarking Metrics

But when we examine the data, we discover that the second meter is

averaging seven cents per kilowatt-hour—about 10 percent more per

kilowatt-hour than the meter above it. If the second meter was able to

benefit from the same rate as the first, savings might be as high as a

quarter of a million dollars annually. This possibility begs a careful rate

analysis.

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FILTERING OUT THE NOISE

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Filtering Out the Noise

A final key to effective benchmarking is to filter out the noise in

your benchmarking process. A good benchmarking system is one

that allows you to quickly focus on the opportunities that offer the

greatest return on your investment.

This next chart is a simple unit cost analysis. The chart is ranking

each included meter by unit cost.

The unit cost (blue bar) for the worst meter has been calculated at

a shocking $35/kWh. But when we look at total cost (orange bar),

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Filtering Out the Noise

we see that we have only spent $143 all year. It’s simply not worth

our attention. So it’s helpful to find a benchmarking system where

it’s easy to separate the wheat from the chaff—to quickly recognize

and exclude places and meters that do not offer a significant energy

management ROI.

EnergyCAP benchmarking reports can be configured to throw out

some of these small meters, perhaps the ones that are $100, less.

By only displaying the higher-use meters, we now have a much more

useful chart:

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The average unit cost for the worst meter, at $35.00 per kilowatt

hour, is terribly high. And this meter cost about $1,500 last year—well

worth taking a look at.

The number two meter, at $19 per kilowatt hour, is also far too

expensive, and this meter costs about $140,000. That meter should

be a high energy management priority. Something unusual is

happening there. It could be some kind of park lighting account—

perhaps a specially-negotiated rate that might include the rental of

lights. Outdoor recreational lighting has very poor load factors and

high demand rates. There could be several reasons for the unusual

unit cost, but because of the very significant expense, it would be

important to follow up.

The unit cost for meter five is $5 per kilowatt hour, and spending was

about $6,700.00 per year, so there is another issue worthy of follow-

up. The potential savings from these recent examples could add up

to more than $170,000.00 annually, so it is easy to see the potential

payback for benchmarking.

Filtering Out the Noise

The potential savings from

these recent examples

could add up to more than

$170,000.00 annually, so it

is easy to see the potential

payback for benchmarking.

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In this final example, we are only benchmarking the electric meters

that have the same rate code and vendor. Peer meters are being

ranked by unit cost.

We would expect that if these meters are all on the same rate

schedule with the same vendor, then the average cost per kilowatt

hour would be identical for each. But as you can see, the average

unit cost for the top building is 16 cents, and we are spending

$92,000 for it every year.

Filtering Out the Noise

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Several other meters in this chart are averaging well above the peer

average of eight cents per kilowatt hour. Time to investigate! The

average is eight cents per kilowatt hour for all the meters in this rate

code, but here are ten expensive meters and they are all higher than

the average. This benchmarking chart (unit cost by rate code) can be

very revealing.

As you can see, effective benchmarking can lead to actionable

energy management insights. We encourage you to find effective

ways to benchmark your organization energy use. Energy savings

are waiting!

Filtering Out the Noise

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCESENERGY STAR Consider becoming an ENERGY STAR partner. Submit your building energy data and receive ratings. Investigate other free report information and resources. www.ENERGYSTAR.gov

Free Building Benchmarks This website will enable you to benchmark your buildings using the most current CBECS data. CBECS is a U.S. Department of Energy database that provides the foundation for the ENERGY STAR rating system. www.BuildingBenchmarks.com

Free Energy Manager Tools This website provides a list with links for a variety of paid and free energy management resources. www.FreeEnergyManagerTools.com

Free BuildingBenchmarks

Free EnergyManager Tools

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. Improve energy management processes . Import bills electronically . Automate utility bill audits . Benchmark your buildings and meters . Spot errors with facility/meter/account-based PowerView® charts and graphs and meter-based issue tracking

. Improve energy intelligence with 200+ reports.

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ABOUT THIS EBOOKThis eBook was prepared by EnergyCAP, Inc. (ECI). ECI publishes energy management software to help organizations get value from their utility bills. Over the past 30 years, more than 10,000 energy managers in 3,000 organizations have tracked $25 billion in energy spending using EnergyCAP software.

EnergyCAP provides powerful energy and greenhouse gas tracking, utility bill processing, auditing, reporting, analyzing, and benchmarking. 1,500 organizations use EnergyCAP including:

City Government: San Francisco, Baltimore, Sacramento, Virginia Beach, Tampa, Denver, Jacksonville, Oklahoma City, Cleveland

County Government: Orange, Riverside, Santa Barbara, CA; Loudoun, Fairfax, Chesterfield, VA; Miami-Dade, FL; Charlotte, FL

State Government: Maryland, Colorado, South Dakota, Montana, Massachusetts, Manitoba

Federal: USMC, Smithsonian, U.S. Dept. of Energy Labs

Commercial: Equity Residential, Forest City, BJs Wholesale Clubs, Burlington Coat Factory, Northrop Grumman

Education: 800+ school districts, SUNY system, University of California system, University of Kansas

ECI regularly publishes educational resources like webinars, ebooks, case studies, and blog posts about popular energy management topics. Learn more at www.EnergyCAP.com.