Energy Audits: From Clipboard to Cloud

12/18/2014

Energy Audits: From Clipboard to Cloud

SERDP and ESTCP have launched a webinar series to promote the transfer of innovative, cost-effective and sustainable solutions developed through projects funded in five program areas. The webinar series targets Department of Defense and Department of Energy practitioners, the regulatory community and environmental researchers with the goal of providing cutting edge and practical information that is easily accessible at no cost.

Presented December 18, 2014- Presentation Slides

Webinar Topics

simuwatt Energy Auditor, an Electronic Auditing Tool with Geometry Capture by Oliver Davis

Across the energy audit industry, there is a great deal of variation in how audit data is collected and analyzed. Typical audit processes rely on tedious, non-standardized, error-prone data collection methods and analyses that range from none at all, to spreadsheet calculations, or more detailed building energy simulation. In alignment with the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, the Department of Defense (DoD) supported the initial development of simuwatt, a level II and level III energy auditing software technology co-developed by concept3D and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). As part of this effort, DoD secured demonstration sites for field-testing of simuwatt with an Energy Service Company (ESCO) in early 2014. A double blind study was done with two auditing teams separately using simuwatt and the ESCO's traditional auditing methods to successfully complete identical audits of two buildings. The results were positive and showed that the team using simuwatt achieved a time savings of 28% compared to the ESCO’s traditional process. Since then, concept3D has been improving simuwatt to take it to market, and intends to secure a GSA Schedule 70 contract in mid-2015 such that federal agencies may use it to meet its EISA 2007 objectives.

Rapid Building Assessment for Energy Efficiency in the Department of Defense by Cara Brill

In recent years, DoD has launched several initiatives to reduce its fossil fuel use by improving energy efficiency. Reducing the amount of energy used across DoD’s portfolio of buildings is a significant opportunity and is critical to reducing emissions and energy consumption across the United States. However, identifying and profiling the energy savings potential of individual buildings presents significant challenges for DoD’s large and diverse building portfolio.

ESTCP engaged FirstFuel Software’s Remote Building Analytics (RBA) platform to assess its ability to address these challenges. FirstFuel’s RBA is an analytics-driven energy information service designed to help large government agencies and utilities rapidly and cost-effectively target, prioritize, quantify, enable, and track energy savings in heterogeneous building portfolios, at scale. This project examined how DoD could measure the impact of energy audits across hundreds of buildings. To conduct each remote audit, FirstFuel utilized four pieces of information: (1) one year of historical electric interval consumption data, (2) weather data from the building’s closest weather station, (3) geographical information systems (GIS) information from the building’s location, and (4) a building information survey completed by DoD site energy managers. This webinar discussed the outcomes of this project.

Speaker Biographies

Oliver Davis co-founded concept3D and products CampusBird, ATLAS and simuwatt while creating the largest custom Google Maps and Google Earth/SketchUp projects to date. From the beginning, concept3D had the mission to help people make more informed decisions by allowing them to visualize their space, and tying the virtual representation to the physical one — whether via a cloud-based energy audit tool or via an interactive 3D map platform. Oliver led the company's growth from inception to leader in the geoweb space. Oliver is responsible for all aspects of business from strategy to marketing and sales development. He has eighteen years of management experience in marketing, operations, product management and business development. Prior to co-founding concept3D, Oliver worked at Edgewater Networks, Level 3, NorthPoint Communications and AT&T. Oliver is a graduate of Skidmore College with a BA in Political Science and a Minor in English Literature and Business.

Cara Brill is a Client Project Manager for FirstFuel Software in Lexington, MA. She brings deep project development and management experience to her work with complex customers within the cleantech sector. Since 2012, Cara has led many of FirstFuel’s utility and government client projects including the DoD Rapid Building Assessment, the General Services Administration (GSA), and Efficiency Maine. She works closely with FirstFuel's engineering delivery team to manage the engagement of building operators and owners – from initial outreach through delivered energy efficiency savings. Prior to FirstFuel, Cara worked for the cleantech start-up Ze-gen where she managed the company's regulatory and project development efforts. Cara led the successful effort to secure initial regulatory approval for Ze-gen's first commercial gasification facility. Cara graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Richmond where she was a double major in History and Rhetoric & Communication Studies.