Presentation 1 Session 1 “How to close the gap between calculated and actual energy consumption of building – re-commissioning instead of certification?”

1. How to close the gap between calculated
and actual energy consumption of
building – re-commissioning instead of
certification?
Boris Sučić
Jožef Stefan Institute – Energy Efficiency Centre
Ljubljana, SLOVENIA

2. Content
• Introduction – About JSI, Key Dilemmas and Our
Common Challenge
• Barriers for the Implementation of Energy Efficiency
Projects in Buildings
• Assessment of Building Energy Performance – Do We
Really Know What We Are Doing?
• Energy Performance Gap – Role of Certification, Energy
Audit and Re-Commissioning
• Future Challenges and Conclusion

3. Introduction – Jožef Stefan Institute,
Energy Efficiency Centre
Established
Organisation
type
Staff
1995 (Energy Efficiency Centre)
Independent centre within the
Jožef Stefan Institute
18 (JSI > 900)
Focus Industry and application
oriented projects with strong
background in energy related
research
Expert support to the
development of national energy
(RES, EE) and climate strategies
and action plans
International cooperation

4. Research and Knowledge Transfer to
Business and Consumers
Innovative energy
management and performance
monitoring
Smart metering and energy
efficient behaviour
Collaborative partnerships with
industry in energy auditing,
measurements, feasibility
studies… (CHP, waste heat, DH)
Trainings in the field of energy
efficiency (EUREM) & EUREM
Alumni events

5. Introduction – Key Dilemmas
• Energy and Resource Efficiency – key development
challenge for the EU and the backbone of future
sustainable development in any sector
• Paying fuels or intelligent efficient technology and new
jobs?
• More than half (53.6 %) of the EU-28’s gross
inland energy consumption in 2016 came from
imported sources
• Primary energy costs of Slovenia: ~2 billion EUR,
~5% of GDP
• Huge business opportunity!

6. Introduction – Our Common Challenge
• Reduction of energy consumption in buildings is a
vital element in the long-term transition towards low-
carbon society
• The EU has identified buildings as being the most
promising target for improving energy efficiency
and has quantified a significant energy-saving potential
associated with infrastructure and equipment
investments
• Challenge - How the region/city can promote greater
adoption of new and efficient technologies by
consumers?

7. Barriers for the Implementation of Energy
Efficiency Projects in Buildings
• Barriers are universal and not much different than in
other sectors
• The main barriers are:
• Legislative/institutional insufficiency - absence of
the implementation program follow-up and the
clear definition of responsibilities of the
management bodies in government and in the state
owned energy companies
• Relatively high up-front costs of technologies and
perception of high investment risks
• People tend not to see direct links between their
actions and environmental performance: Education
and Motivation!

8. Assessment of Building Energy Performance –
Do We Really Know What We Are Doing?
• At the beginning there was a lack of data!
• Energy Performance Certificates were logical step
forward
• After optimistic start it has been noticed that there is a
significant deviation between estimated and real
energy performance of building
• Is it better to promise less and achieve more of promise
more and not deliver?
• From the end-user perspective there is a need for a
robust instrument for reliable verification of energy
savings and active building operator support for
systematic reduction of the energy consumption!

9. Assessment of Building Energy Performance –
Do We Really Know What We Are Doing? (2)
• The house is a machine for living in! (Charles-
Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier)
• It is not dehumanisation, it simply means that the
establishment of performance standards becomes
necessary element of modern living
• … When you can measure what you are speaking
about, and express it in numbers, you know something
about it … (Lord Kelvin)
• Are there universally applicable solutions?
• Context of energy use! It is not possible to expect
successful implementation of the initially defined
energy efficiency programs without the proper
understanding of the implementation environment

10. Energy Performance Gap – Role of Certification,
Energy Audit and Re-Commissioning
• EPC has been developed as a key policy instrument to
improve energy efficiency, decrease energy
consumption and provide more transparency on energy
use in buildings
• Many different views on certification process:
• Assessment Certificate Dissemination of
Information (time vs money vs end user‘s needs)
• Stronger requirements on the quality and content of
the data are necessary (QA and QC)
• Besides national certification schemes there are also a
number of regional and global schemes

11. Energy Performance Gap – Role of
Certification, Energy Audit and Re-Co… (2)
• EPC and key performance indicators – the purpose of
benchmarking, calculated energy consumption and
proposed recommendations
• Policy point of view - there is a challenge to link EPC
data with governmental financial support programs,
training for building managers and tailor-made
information campaigns for building users
• Operational point of view - it is crucial to properly
present EPC data to ordinary people which in many
cases do not understand differences between
calculated and measured energy consumption

12. Energy Performance Gap – Role of
Certification, Energy Audit and Re-Co… (3)
• Complex buildings – EPC as a result of an energy
audit
• Why do we need an energy audit?
• Do we regularly check our health?
• Energy audit, if conducted in a systematic and a
comprehensive manner, is a powerful tool for
evaluating current or past energy and environmental
performance and management practice
• The ultimate aim of energy audit is clear – identifying
opportunities for reducing energy consumption and
related costs

13. Energy Performance Gap – Role of
Certification, Energy Audit and Re-Co… (4)
• ISO 50001 brings several very important changes:
• analyse energy use and consumption based on measurement
and other data and to identify current energy sources in
combination with evaluation of past and present energy use
• identify the facilities, equipment, systems, processes and
personnel working for, or on behalf of, the organization that
significantly affect energy use and consumption
• identify other relevant variables that are affecting significant
energy uses
• determine the current energy performance of facilities,
equipment, systems and processes related to identified
significant energy uses;
• estimate future energy use and consumption
• Do not be fast but provide reliable results!

14. Energy Performance Gap – Role of
Certification, Energy Audit and Re-Co… (5)
• Re-Commissioning – well established practice in USA
and Canada
• Our experiences with IEE project called Re-Co:
Re-Commissioning – Raising Energy Performance in
Existing Non-Residential Buildings (Hospitals,
Universities, Office Buildings)
• Based on implementation of low-or-no-cost
measures (achieved IRR ~ 69%, case study hospital)
• Potential risks related with high start-up costs (Re-Co is
more profitable in large and complex buildings)

15. Energy Performance Gap – Role of
Certification, Energy Audit and Re-Co… (6)
• The Re-Commissioning approach is based on 5 key
components:
• Energy information systems
• Data analyses and selected measurement
• Optimization of existing building technology
• Information and motivation of building occupants
• Performance measurement and quality assurance

16. Energy Performance Gap – Role of
Certification, Energy Audit and Re-Co… (7)
Actual consumption
[kWh/14 days]
29.058
29.249
29.826
30.076
27.913
29.293
30.283
31.098
Predicted/estimated con.
[kWh/2T]
30.754
30.571
30.637
29.201
28.442
30.988
30.693
30.193

17. Future Challenges and Conclusion
• Promotion of energy awareness requires significant amount of
time, efforts and experience – two main barriers resolved (fear of
change - the addressed energy system within the building are so
complicated and can‘t be optimised
• If properly combined with energy auditing and re-
commissioning activities, EPC has a potential to become an
instrument for verification of energy savings
• Energy efficiency expert and building manager – honest
relationship, communication and cooperation

18. Future Challenges and Conclusion (2)
• Performance monitoring – learning through people‘s performance
evaluation
• A common information system for the assessment of energy
performance of buildings + proper understanding of context of
energy use + common set of key performance indicators = better
energy efficiency culture
YES, WE NEED IT!
• Plan-Do-Check-Act (Adjust) – Sounds simple but…
• Copy-paste planning - the most frequent mistake!

19. Future Challenges and Conclusion (3)
• We should never forget our initial goals!
Source: Barron, M., and Barron, A. R. (2013). Module: "Project Initiation„ in Project Management 101. Rice University, Houston, Texas [online]
Available at: https://cnx.org/contents/RMKXRmLS@3/Project-Initiation [Accessed 31 Jan. 2019]

20. Future Challenges and Conclusion (4)
• Which shared indicators are needed to facilitate the interlinking
of the various simulation, rating and certification tools used
throughout the various stages of the lifecycle?
• Please be aware that the information on the key performance
indicator alone can‘t solving the problem and the upgraded
version of EPC must incorporate the required knowledge on how
to correctly interpret different values of key performance
indicators. Dynamic and context-sensitive indicator called
Energy Performance Coefficient (EnPC), which is the ratio of actual
(measured) to predicted, estimated or benchmark energy
consumption, can be part of the solution. EnPC values higher
than 1 are indicating that there is potential for performance
improvement.

21. https://timepac2019.blogspot.com/
If you would like to have more information about this
presentation, please contact
boris.sucic@ijs.si
Thank you for attention!