AFE March/April 2012 : Page 20METERING ALL FEDERAL FACILITIES — ARE WE THERE YET? communicating to any desired monitoring location via the facility’s existing Ethernet backbone, wireless infrastructure, mo-dem, the Internet or other data highway to factor any desired utility service into the facility’s energy management system. Combining submeters with a sophisticated energy intelligence soft ware system allows users to better understand when, where and how energy is being used within the organization. Armed with this informa-tion, facility managers can better control costs and improve operational effi ciencies, along with developing measurable energy conservation initiatives. As a data acquisi-tion “front end” to the facility’s building management system (BMS), submeters are an especially useful way to: Q occur automatically; Aggregate energy data to position the consumer group as a larger, more attractive customer for com-peting energy service providers. The Impact of EPAct and Other Legislation Recent legislation, including the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 (EIEA08) and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA09), pro-vides funding, block grants, signifi cant tax credits, extensions and other incentives to jump start the move to more energy-effi cient technologies. As these policies play out over time, submetering technology will continue to provide fi rst-level energy data acquisition Figure 4. 30% reduction in total facility energy use relative to 2003 levels; natural gas and steam metering will be required by October 2016. In response to these and other federal en-ergy programs, E-Mon and other manufac-turers have developed advanced hardware and soft ware tools to specifi cally address the needs of the sustainability market. Certifi ed to ANSI C12.1 & C12.16 national accuracy standards, new-generation advanced meters (Figure 3) off er a number of important functions and capabilities for new construc-tion or retrofi t applications, including: Q Scrolling LCD display of kilowatt-hour (kWh) usage; Q kWh in dollars; Q Current demand load (kW); Q Cost per hour, based on current load; Q Estimated CO 2 emissions in pounds, based on DOE standards; Q Estimated hourly CO 2 emissions based on current load; Q Net metering, including utility-de-livered vs. user-received power and net usage; Q Compatibility with pulse-output utility meters, including water, gas, BTU, steam, etc. Guidance for Electric Metering in Federal Buildings FIGURE 4 In this facility in Pittsburgh, 122 Class 1000 electric submeters installed in multiple meter units (MMU) connect via Ethernet link to the building engineer’s PC, where monthly tenant billing statements based on actual electrical usage are generated. Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Measure, verify and benchmark energy demand and consumption for energy initiatives, including LEED Energy & Atmosphere (EA) and Wa-ter Effi ciency (WE) credits; Monitor all utility services, includ-ing electricity, gas, water and steam; Determine specifi c processes that are not energy effi cient; Assess and chart power-quality pa-rameters; Evaluate, in near real time, the impact of critical load-shedding activities; Compare energy usage by day, week, month or year; Schedule energy data collections to for benchmarking, measuring and verifying compliance with whatever program guide-lines are instituted. Th ese federal energy pro-grams and executive orders are important to understand, especially the following whose controlling authority is foundational to most other current policy initiatives: Q Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005) —mandates metering of all fed-eral buildings by October 1, 2012. Sec-tions relative to submetering include 1251 (net metering) and 1331 (support for $1.80 per square foot tax deduction for energy-effi cient buildings). Q Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA)—required by 2015, Th e DOE’s Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) conducted a number of metering workshops in the 2003-2005 time period to help agencies understand and comply with the emerging federal guidelines. Th e results of those workshops were published in early 2006 as DOE/EE-0312, “Guidance for Electric Metering in Federal Buildings.” As the name suggests, DOE/EE-0312 is not a mandatory policy guideline, rather it provides a useful set of “serving suggestions” to help federal facility managers design their own procedures and programs for comply-ing with EPAct 2005. Th e 22-page docu-ment’s Executive Summary states up front that Section 103 of EPAct 2005 pertains to electric metering only and further defi nes what is meant by such terms as “buildings” and “maximum extent practicable.” DOE/EE-0312 also provides imple-mentation timelines and useful appen-20 March | April 2012 Q  Facilities Engineering Journal Q  www.AFE.org Publication List Using a screen reader? Click Here |
