Measuring savings in energy savings performance contracts using in-place energy management systems- A case study

Energy Management Control Systems (EMCSs) have been used in many projects as a monitoring device to provide information necessary for estimating savings from efficiency measures. This paper discusses a case study that looked in great depth at that use for evaluating savings in Energy Savings Performance Contracting (ESPC). ESPC is one of the increasingly important mechanisms for profiting from energy efficiency in commercial buildings. With ESPC, a contractor finances and installs energy-conservation measures, and the resulting savings in energy bills are shared between the contractor and the building owner. Hence, the method used for determining savings is key to the success of this financing scheme. As a part of their effort to establish measurement and verification methods, the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) carried out a pilot study of ESPC, and the EMCS was used in the savings verification for this ESPC contract. This case study also serves as a detailed and quantitative comparison of EMCS and conventional monitoring techniques, according to the guidelines developed in earlier work. This paper discusses the concept of different levels of monitoring savings for ESPC and presents an assessment of the use of EMCS for these levels of monitoring.