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THE HIGH PERFORMANCE PORTFOLIO:

ENERGY TRACKING AND
ACCOUNTING
SUMMARY:
Knowing how a building uses energy over time – whether over a day or over a period of years – is
critical to managing operating expenses and improving energy performance. A variety of tools and
resources are available to track and monitor building energy consumption, costs, and other metrics.
What are the differences among these different levels of energy tracking? Who should use the
information, and how?

At a basic level, reviewing energy bills allows managers to monitor costs. Benchmarking with
ENERGY STAR’s Portfolio Manager lets management teams identify monthly or yearly patterns and
obtain a normalized metric of energy performance. Digging deeper, 15-minute interval data shows
whether daily energy performance falls within expectations and begins to identify specific equipment
or procedures to target to improve energy efficiency.

A combination of these methods helps building operators and management to identify trends
and outliers, and ultimately to enhance energy performance through greater consciousness and
awareness – and track how performance relates to a plan of action.

IN DEPTH:
The adage “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” is apt – knowledge is power when it comes
to improving energy performance. Property managers, building operators, asset managers, and
owners use a variety of tools to gather data and measure
energy performance. This information forms three distinct
“levels” of energy tracking, each of which provides insight
                                                                  ELECTRIC BILLS AND
into certain aspects of energy performance.                       LOAD FACTOR
LEVEL 1: BILL REVIEW AND PAYMENT                                     Senior building engineers recommend
                                                                     periodically checking the load factor – the
The most basic level is monitoring utility bills, just as you
                                                                     ratio of the actual kWh delivered to a
might monitor how much money you spend on gas each
                                                                     building in a designated period of time
time you fill up your car. Utility bills are typically monitored
                                                                     to the total possible kWh that could be
in varying capacities by property managers and engineers.
                                                                     delivered, based on peak demand. The
                                                                     average load factor for an office building is
                                                                     typically around 50%.

                                                                     Load Factor = Total kWh Used / [Peak kW
                                                                     Demand x Days in Bill Cycle x 24 Hours/Day]

                                                                     A load factor significantly higher than 50%
                                                                     for an office building may indicate that the
                                                                     building systems are operating longer than
                                                                     average. As operating hours are reduced or
                                                                     energy efficiency increases, the load factor
                                                                     should generally decrease.
Organizations track billing information at the property and portfolio level; this accounting may occur
                                               at the property, off-site at a centralized corporate location, or via a utility billing service provider.

                                               Some companies use advanced software (available commercially or through a utility provider) to view
                                               energy information in a comprehensive, interactive “dashboard” format, with meaningful metrics of
                                               energy and financial performance. Users can select from a variety of charts, graphs, and reporting
                                               formats to analyze utility bill data, often with the help of the software company’s technical support or
                                               training. Many leading commercial tools link data to ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager (see Level 2)
                                               and enable trend logging (see Level 3), serving as a bridge between utility bill monitoring and more
                                               enhanced levels of awareness. Software programs include Advantage IQ, Utility Manager Pro, and
                                               Energy WorkSite. The BetterBricks Web site has a list of commercial as well as utility company software
                                               tools available in the Northwest.

                                               However utility bills are tracked, it is important that the on-the-ground building staff has access to – and
                                               consistently monitors – the data. Avoid finding yourself in a situation where you don’t know where utility
                                               data is housed or who is responsible for reviewing it. Building staff should regularly compare meter
                                               readings to billing data, double-check that your property is on the correct rate schedule, and generally
                                               ensure the accuracy of the bills. Further, property managers should track actual costs against budget
                                               projections and use this information to identify issues and financial exceptions (when energy costs are
                                               significantly higher or lower than the budget line item). Because the utility bills ultimately impact tenant
                                               operating expense allocations, and variances directly impact expense stops and base years for new
                                               leases, it is important that bills are reviewed and shared with accounting staff and building management.

                                            It’s also important to look for trends in both consumption and costs. If costs are increasing but
                                            consumption is going down, this signifies an increase in rates, not to be confused with a decrease in
                                            efficiency. Many utility providers will compare usage and costs to the same month from the previous year
                                            right on the bill; this is a good place to start to identify whether the building is experiencing an upward or
                                                                                                                   downward trend, but it doesn’t give the
                                                                                                                   whole picture – for example, extremely
                            CITY OF SEATTLE               Summary of Charges as of June 11, 2008                   hot or cold weather or changes in
                                                          Previous balance:                            3,1306.08

                            Account number:               Payments applied:                        3,1306.08 CR    tenancy may be influencing relative
                            1-2345-678901                 Balance:                                          0.00
                                                          Total adjustments:                                0.00
                                                                                                                   energy performance and should be
                            Customer Premises
                             number     number            Current billing:                              3,109.36
                                                                                                                   further investigated.
  Check accuracy to                                                              TOTAL AMOUNT DUE ON July 02, 2008                                                     $3,109.36
    ensure proper           Service address:
                                                                                 Compare Your Electricity Usage
processing of rebates.      1234 MAIN ST.
                                                                                2745                                                                    No. of days this period: 29
                             Chart provides 13 months to                                                                                                Same period last year: 31     This example identifies how to interpret
                          enable comparison to same period                      2196
                                                                                                                                              kWh consumption this period: 61800
                                                                 Avg. kWh/day




                           last year. Note different # of days
                          when comparing month-to-month.
                                                                                1647                                                                Same period last year: 64670      some of the information available on a
                                                                                1098                                                                   Avg. kWh per day: 2131.03

                                                                                 549
                                                                                                                                                    Same period last year: 2086.12    typical electric bill.
  Blended electric rate = bill amount ($3,109.36) ÷                                                                                          Avg. kWh cost this period: $99.51/day
         consumption (61,800) = 5¢/kWh                                             0
                                                                                       JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN
                                                                                                        2007    Bill Months   2008

                                                                                Meter only reads 1/10 of the usage; number must
                                                                                 be multiplied by 10 to get actual consumption.

                                       DETAILED BILLING INFORMATION – ELECTRIC SERVICE
   Meter      Service       Service     Service       Previous         Current                 Multi-          Consumption       Power       Rate          Unit          Amount
  Number     Category        From       Through       Reading          Reading                 plier             / Units         Factor      Code         Charge

 12345       KWH           5/5/08      6/3/08        42848        49028    10            61800.00
                        Subtract previous reading from current reading and multiply by 10 to get all electricity consumed during the cycle (kWh).

 12345       KW            5/5/08       6/3/08          16.21                   17.14        10                     171.40
 Multiply current reading by 10 to get peak demand - the most energy that was consumed during any 15-minute period during the bill cycle (kW).
 12345       KVAR          5/5/08       6/3/08         63114                    66454        10                  33400.00        0.879

   Unit of measure for determining power factor (how effectively building’s equipment converts utility’s electric current to useful power.)
                                    Medium General Energy                              61800.00                  EMDC        0.0467      2,886.06

                                        Demand                                                                      171.40                EMDC            1.0300           176.54

                                        Power Factor Penalty                                                     33400.00        0.879    EMDC            0.0014            46.76

                                        CURRENT BILLING:                                                                                                            $3,109.36


                              Sample Electric Bill Explanation and Calculations
LEVEL 2: ENERGY STAR BENCHMARKING
To address the issues that make consumption and costs by themselves incomplete metrics, the U.S. EPA
ENERGY STAR program created the national energy performance rating system. The rating is housed
in Portfolio Manager, an online tool that normalizes data for some of the factors that complicate energy
consumption (such as weather, occupancy, and building function), generating a 1-100 rating for many
types of buildings. The normalization embedded in the rating allows buildings to be compared to other,
similar buildings, ensuring that increased air conditioning use during an abnormally hot summer or an
increase in occupant density is not interpreted as a decrease in efficiency. At a greater level of scrutiny
than keeping tabs on your gasoline receipts, the energy performance rating is similar to measuring a
car’s miles per gallon rating.

Regardless of whether a building is eligible for a 1-100 energy performance rating, Portfolio Manager
provides high-level trending and energy performance monitoring, tracking metrics including
greenhouse gas emissions, consumption, costs, weather-normalized energy intensity, costs per square
foot, and many more metrics.

The process of entering the necessary data into Portfolio Manager, establishing an energy performance
baseline, and monitoring trends is referred to as benchmarking. A range of individuals within a real
estate organization may be involved with benchmarking energy performance at a property. Property
managers, engineers, and other on-site staff may be responsible for collecting the necessary occupancy
and utility bill data.

Once a building is benchmarked, its rating and other metrics are useful for high-level energy
performance monitoring and tracking. The data might be shared with asset managers and senior
executives to help reinforce accountability for energy performance and compare multiple properties
within a portfolio. The data outputs are also relevant to monthly, quarterly, and annual monitoring of
energy performance, and savings trends at the property level.

Portfolio Manager is equipped with features that facilitate sharing information, allowing users to:
•   Set baselines from which to measure progress
•   Create views that show preferred metrics in a certain order




                                 Sample Portfolio Manager Facility Summary
•   Generate a Statement of Energy Performance summarizing the building’s performance in a
    brief snapshot
•   Download an Energy Performance Report, summarizing the performance of a group of buildings

LEVEL 3: TREND LOGGING AND INTERVAL DATA
Zooming in another level from monthly data, real-time metering data (or interval data) may be used
to identify anomalies in energy use for quick reaction at the building level on a daily basis. Interval
data gives building energy demand over intervals as short as 15 minutes. The practice of using this
information to analyze and understand building energy use is known as trend logging. Continuing
the car analogy, interval data is similar to the display of real-time information across your dashboard –
speed, RPM, temperature, and more.

Trend logging is particularly useful to on-the-ground building engineers and property managers.
Graphs of interval data (or load profiles) can help them pinpoint exactly when the building is
experiencing peaks in energy use, which set peak demand rates and can lead to identification or
confirmation of what is using the energy.

Examples of issues that can be identified are shown on the sample graph below. In addition to the
examples on the graph, also look for unnecessary weekend, holiday, and after-hours operation. Staff
should be trained to identify problems that may be able to be corrected at little or no cost – since the
cause of unusual energy use patterns is often an operational or controls issue.




                                     Sample Weekday Interval Data Graph


                                           Daily Total Usage
                                   Original operations: 4,770 kWh
                                     New operations: 4,320 kWh
                        Reduced whole-building daily energy consumption by 9.5%

                     Systems pull back as
                     building reaches set-
                                                        HVAC systems begin to turn off or pare back at
                             point
                                                                              5pm
                                                        Optimum stop lets
                                                        systems turn off ½           Spike occurs at 7:30pm when
                                                       hour earlier and coast      indoor temperature rises above
                                                         for rest of the day       after-hours set point and cooling
                                                                                            system turns on


                                             Building operator raises set-back set                    Lights off when
                                              point by a few degrees so cooling                      janitors leave at
                                                  does not kick in after-hours                            9:30pm


           Building systems   Systems begin turning on                                 Janitors begin team cleaning;
           begin turning on       2 hours later with                                       most lights off at 8pm
                at 4am         optimum start enabled
This data may be available from the utility company for free or a small fee, sometimes with the
                           installation of a special meter, and in many cases is available to be downloaded at the building
                           operator’s convenience from the utility Web site.1




                           1
                               A building’s energy management system (EMS) may also provide interval data, but due to their complexity, EMS
                               capabilities will not be covered in detail here.




         THE BOTTOM LINE:

         •      Beyond paying the monthly utility bills, managing                •    Different individuals need access to different levels
                energy performance requires staying on top of a                       of information, but real estate practitioners should
                variety of other information.                                         understand all the data sources, where each one
         •      A combination of energy tracking and accounting                       flows to, and how they interact with each other. A
                mechanisms can help you get the whole picture,                        high performance building needs all three levels of
                including:                                                            energy tracking.

                o   Annual and monthly metrics of costs and                      •    Monitoring trends and promptly identifying outliers
                    consumption as identified by monitoring                           can avoid potentially costly issues that detract
                    utility bills                                                     from energy performance, while also highlighting
                                                                                      positive trends and quantifying savings from energy
                o   Normalized, comparable energy performance
                                                                                      improvements.
                    indicators accessed through ENERGY STAR
                    Portfolio Manager                                            •    Tracking only gets you so far – understand what the
                                                                                      data is telling you, and then follow through with
                o   Day-to-day hourly monitoring, available
                                                                                      actions to improve energy performance – leading to
                    through interval data
                                                                                      better management of costs.




         USEFUL LINKS:
         The High Performance Portfolio
         www.betterbricks.com/office/framework

         Benchmark energy performance with ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager:
         www.energystar.gov/benchmark

         To learn more collecting and interpreting energy data, as well as to locate tools for tracking
         utility consumption, visit the Performance Indicators page on the BetterBricks website:
         www.betterbricks.com/detailpage.aspx?id=491

         Visit the BetterBricks Building Operations Web site for guidance to improve performance:
         www.betterbricks.com/SubHomePage.aspx?ID=6.



November 2009                                                                                                                 www.betterbricks.com/office/briefs

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Energy Tracking & Accounting for Commercial Buildings

  • 1. THE HIGH PERFORMANCE PORTFOLIO: ENERGY TRACKING AND ACCOUNTING SUMMARY: Knowing how a building uses energy over time – whether over a day or over a period of years – is critical to managing operating expenses and improving energy performance. A variety of tools and resources are available to track and monitor building energy consumption, costs, and other metrics. What are the differences among these different levels of energy tracking? Who should use the information, and how? At a basic level, reviewing energy bills allows managers to monitor costs. Benchmarking with ENERGY STAR’s Portfolio Manager lets management teams identify monthly or yearly patterns and obtain a normalized metric of energy performance. Digging deeper, 15-minute interval data shows whether daily energy performance falls within expectations and begins to identify specific equipment or procedures to target to improve energy efficiency. A combination of these methods helps building operators and management to identify trends and outliers, and ultimately to enhance energy performance through greater consciousness and awareness – and track how performance relates to a plan of action. IN DEPTH: The adage “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” is apt – knowledge is power when it comes to improving energy performance. Property managers, building operators, asset managers, and owners use a variety of tools to gather data and measure energy performance. This information forms three distinct “levels” of energy tracking, each of which provides insight ELECTRIC BILLS AND into certain aspects of energy performance. LOAD FACTOR LEVEL 1: BILL REVIEW AND PAYMENT Senior building engineers recommend periodically checking the load factor – the The most basic level is monitoring utility bills, just as you ratio of the actual kWh delivered to a might monitor how much money you spend on gas each building in a designated period of time time you fill up your car. Utility bills are typically monitored to the total possible kWh that could be in varying capacities by property managers and engineers. delivered, based on peak demand. The average load factor for an office building is typically around 50%. Load Factor = Total kWh Used / [Peak kW Demand x Days in Bill Cycle x 24 Hours/Day] A load factor significantly higher than 50% for an office building may indicate that the building systems are operating longer than average. As operating hours are reduced or energy efficiency increases, the load factor should generally decrease.
  • 2. Organizations track billing information at the property and portfolio level; this accounting may occur at the property, off-site at a centralized corporate location, or via a utility billing service provider. Some companies use advanced software (available commercially or through a utility provider) to view energy information in a comprehensive, interactive “dashboard” format, with meaningful metrics of energy and financial performance. Users can select from a variety of charts, graphs, and reporting formats to analyze utility bill data, often with the help of the software company’s technical support or training. Many leading commercial tools link data to ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager (see Level 2) and enable trend logging (see Level 3), serving as a bridge between utility bill monitoring and more enhanced levels of awareness. Software programs include Advantage IQ, Utility Manager Pro, and Energy WorkSite. The BetterBricks Web site has a list of commercial as well as utility company software tools available in the Northwest. However utility bills are tracked, it is important that the on-the-ground building staff has access to – and consistently monitors – the data. Avoid finding yourself in a situation where you don’t know where utility data is housed or who is responsible for reviewing it. Building staff should regularly compare meter readings to billing data, double-check that your property is on the correct rate schedule, and generally ensure the accuracy of the bills. Further, property managers should track actual costs against budget projections and use this information to identify issues and financial exceptions (when energy costs are significantly higher or lower than the budget line item). Because the utility bills ultimately impact tenant operating expense allocations, and variances directly impact expense stops and base years for new leases, it is important that bills are reviewed and shared with accounting staff and building management. It’s also important to look for trends in both consumption and costs. If costs are increasing but consumption is going down, this signifies an increase in rates, not to be confused with a decrease in efficiency. Many utility providers will compare usage and costs to the same month from the previous year right on the bill; this is a good place to start to identify whether the building is experiencing an upward or downward trend, but it doesn’t give the whole picture – for example, extremely CITY OF SEATTLE Summary of Charges as of June 11, 2008 hot or cold weather or changes in Previous balance: 3,1306.08 Account number: Payments applied: 3,1306.08 CR tenancy may be influencing relative 1-2345-678901 Balance: 0.00 Total adjustments: 0.00 energy performance and should be Customer Premises number number Current billing: 3,109.36 further investigated. Check accuracy to TOTAL AMOUNT DUE ON July 02, 2008 $3,109.36 ensure proper Service address: Compare Your Electricity Usage processing of rebates. 1234 MAIN ST. 2745 No. of days this period: 29 Chart provides 13 months to Same period last year: 31 This example identifies how to interpret enable comparison to same period 2196 kWh consumption this period: 61800 Avg. kWh/day last year. Note different # of days when comparing month-to-month. 1647 Same period last year: 64670 some of the information available on a 1098 Avg. kWh per day: 2131.03 549 Same period last year: 2086.12 typical electric bill. Blended electric rate = bill amount ($3,109.36) ÷ Avg. kWh cost this period: $99.51/day consumption (61,800) = 5¢/kWh 0 JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN 2007 Bill Months 2008 Meter only reads 1/10 of the usage; number must be multiplied by 10 to get actual consumption. DETAILED BILLING INFORMATION – ELECTRIC SERVICE Meter Service Service Service Previous Current Multi- Consumption Power Rate Unit Amount Number Category From Through Reading Reading plier / Units Factor Code Charge 12345 KWH 5/5/08 6/3/08 42848 49028 10 61800.00 Subtract previous reading from current reading and multiply by 10 to get all electricity consumed during the cycle (kWh). 12345 KW 5/5/08 6/3/08 16.21 17.14 10 171.40 Multiply current reading by 10 to get peak demand - the most energy that was consumed during any 15-minute period during the bill cycle (kW). 12345 KVAR 5/5/08 6/3/08 63114 66454 10 33400.00 0.879 Unit of measure for determining power factor (how effectively building’s equipment converts utility’s electric current to useful power.) Medium General Energy 61800.00 EMDC 0.0467 2,886.06 Demand 171.40 EMDC 1.0300 176.54 Power Factor Penalty 33400.00 0.879 EMDC 0.0014 46.76 CURRENT BILLING: $3,109.36 Sample Electric Bill Explanation and Calculations
  • 3. LEVEL 2: ENERGY STAR BENCHMARKING To address the issues that make consumption and costs by themselves incomplete metrics, the U.S. EPA ENERGY STAR program created the national energy performance rating system. The rating is housed in Portfolio Manager, an online tool that normalizes data for some of the factors that complicate energy consumption (such as weather, occupancy, and building function), generating a 1-100 rating for many types of buildings. The normalization embedded in the rating allows buildings to be compared to other, similar buildings, ensuring that increased air conditioning use during an abnormally hot summer or an increase in occupant density is not interpreted as a decrease in efficiency. At a greater level of scrutiny than keeping tabs on your gasoline receipts, the energy performance rating is similar to measuring a car’s miles per gallon rating. Regardless of whether a building is eligible for a 1-100 energy performance rating, Portfolio Manager provides high-level trending and energy performance monitoring, tracking metrics including greenhouse gas emissions, consumption, costs, weather-normalized energy intensity, costs per square foot, and many more metrics. The process of entering the necessary data into Portfolio Manager, establishing an energy performance baseline, and monitoring trends is referred to as benchmarking. A range of individuals within a real estate organization may be involved with benchmarking energy performance at a property. Property managers, engineers, and other on-site staff may be responsible for collecting the necessary occupancy and utility bill data. Once a building is benchmarked, its rating and other metrics are useful for high-level energy performance monitoring and tracking. The data might be shared with asset managers and senior executives to help reinforce accountability for energy performance and compare multiple properties within a portfolio. The data outputs are also relevant to monthly, quarterly, and annual monitoring of energy performance, and savings trends at the property level. Portfolio Manager is equipped with features that facilitate sharing information, allowing users to: • Set baselines from which to measure progress • Create views that show preferred metrics in a certain order Sample Portfolio Manager Facility Summary
  • 4. Generate a Statement of Energy Performance summarizing the building’s performance in a brief snapshot • Download an Energy Performance Report, summarizing the performance of a group of buildings LEVEL 3: TREND LOGGING AND INTERVAL DATA Zooming in another level from monthly data, real-time metering data (or interval data) may be used to identify anomalies in energy use for quick reaction at the building level on a daily basis. Interval data gives building energy demand over intervals as short as 15 minutes. The practice of using this information to analyze and understand building energy use is known as trend logging. Continuing the car analogy, interval data is similar to the display of real-time information across your dashboard – speed, RPM, temperature, and more. Trend logging is particularly useful to on-the-ground building engineers and property managers. Graphs of interval data (or load profiles) can help them pinpoint exactly when the building is experiencing peaks in energy use, which set peak demand rates and can lead to identification or confirmation of what is using the energy. Examples of issues that can be identified are shown on the sample graph below. In addition to the examples on the graph, also look for unnecessary weekend, holiday, and after-hours operation. Staff should be trained to identify problems that may be able to be corrected at little or no cost – since the cause of unusual energy use patterns is often an operational or controls issue. Sample Weekday Interval Data Graph Daily Total Usage Original operations: 4,770 kWh New operations: 4,320 kWh Reduced whole-building daily energy consumption by 9.5% Systems pull back as building reaches set- HVAC systems begin to turn off or pare back at point 5pm Optimum stop lets systems turn off ½ Spike occurs at 7:30pm when hour earlier and coast indoor temperature rises above for rest of the day after-hours set point and cooling system turns on Building operator raises set-back set Lights off when point by a few degrees so cooling janitors leave at does not kick in after-hours 9:30pm Building systems Systems begin turning on Janitors begin team cleaning; begin turning on 2 hours later with most lights off at 8pm at 4am optimum start enabled
  • 5. This data may be available from the utility company for free or a small fee, sometimes with the installation of a special meter, and in many cases is available to be downloaded at the building operator’s convenience from the utility Web site.1 1 A building’s energy management system (EMS) may also provide interval data, but due to their complexity, EMS capabilities will not be covered in detail here. THE BOTTOM LINE: • Beyond paying the monthly utility bills, managing • Different individuals need access to different levels energy performance requires staying on top of a of information, but real estate practitioners should variety of other information. understand all the data sources, where each one • A combination of energy tracking and accounting flows to, and how they interact with each other. A mechanisms can help you get the whole picture, high performance building needs all three levels of including: energy tracking. o Annual and monthly metrics of costs and • Monitoring trends and promptly identifying outliers consumption as identified by monitoring can avoid potentially costly issues that detract utility bills from energy performance, while also highlighting positive trends and quantifying savings from energy o Normalized, comparable energy performance improvements. indicators accessed through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager • Tracking only gets you so far – understand what the data is telling you, and then follow through with o Day-to-day hourly monitoring, available actions to improve energy performance – leading to through interval data better management of costs. USEFUL LINKS: The High Performance Portfolio www.betterbricks.com/office/framework Benchmark energy performance with ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager: www.energystar.gov/benchmark To learn more collecting and interpreting energy data, as well as to locate tools for tracking utility consumption, visit the Performance Indicators page on the BetterBricks website: www.betterbricks.com/detailpage.aspx?id=491 Visit the BetterBricks Building Operations Web site for guidance to improve performance: www.betterbricks.com/SubHomePage.aspx?ID=6. November 2009 www.betterbricks.com/office/briefs