OpenStudio: A Platform for Ex Ante Incentive Programs
Many utilities operate programs that provide ex ante (up front) incentives for building energy conservation measures (ECMs). A typical incentive program covers two kinds of ECMs. ECMs that deliver similar savings in different contexts are associated with pre-calculated 'deemed' savings values. ECMs that deliver different savings in different contexts are evaluated on a 'custom' per-project basis. Incentive programs often operate at less than peak efficiency because both deemed ECMs and custom projects have lengthy and effort-intensive review processes--deemed ECMs to gain confidence that they are sufficiently context insensitive, custom projects to ensure that savings are claimed appropriately. DOE's OpenStudio platform can be used to automate ex ante processes and help utilities operate programs more efficiently, consistently, and transparently, resulting in greater project throughput and energy savings. A key concept of the platform is the OpenStudio Measure, a script that queries and transforms building energy models. Measures can be simple or surgical, e.g., applying different transformations based on space-type, orientation, etc. Measures represent ECMs explicitly and are easier to review than ECMs that are represented implicitly as the difference between a with-ECM and without-ECM models. Measures can be automatically applied to large numbers of prototype models--and instantiated from uncertainty distributions--facilitating the large scale analysis required to develop deemed savings values. For custom projects, Measures can also be used to calibrate existing building models, to automatically create code baseline models, and to perform quality assurance screening.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1324396
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/CP-5500-67087
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Presented at the 2016 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, 21-26 August 2016, Pacific Grove, California
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Beyond Widgets: Validated Systems Energy Savings and Utility Custom Incentive Program Systems Trends
A Framework for Daylighting Optimization in Whole Buildings with OpenStudio