Purpose Flashcards
What is M&V?
The process of planning, measuring, collecting, and analyzing data to verify and report energy savings within a facility or facilities resulting from the implementation of EEMs
How are energy savings quantified?
Savings commonly quantified include electricity consumption, electric demand, natural gas consumption, carbon emissions, water consumption, and may include utilities such as steam, energy generated, or other items to be verified as part of a sustainability or efficiency project process of using measurements to reliably determine savings created within an individual facility through the application of Energy Efficiency Measures (EEMs).
Can you measure savings directly?
Savings cannot be directly measured since they represent the absence of energy consumption and/or demand. Instead, savings are determined by comparing measured consumption and/or demand before and after the implementation of a project, making appropriate adjustments for changes in condition
What are some M&V activities?
Evaluating energy flows and sources of savings.
Meter installation, calibration, and maintenance.
Data gathering, storage, and quality control.
Development of a computation method and acceptable estimates.
Computations with measured data.
Planning and verifying completion of operational verification.
Reporting, quality assurance, and third-party verification of reports.
M&V activities often overlap with other project efforts related to the development and implementation of EEMs (e.g., collecting data to identify EEMs and establish energy baselines, commissioning, and operational verification of installed EEMs, installing monitoring systems to gather data, etc.). The M&V design and reporting process parallel the EEM design and implementation process, and their activities can often be integrated.
What are good practices of M&V?
Good practice involves the integration of the M&V efforts into the process of identifying, developing, procuring, installing, and operating energy efficiency measures (EEMs) whenever possible. Identifying project synergies and establishing roles and responsibilities of involved parties during project planning will support a coordinated team effort. This can leverage complementary scopes and control M&V-related costs. Properly integrated, each M&V task serves to enhance and improve EEM operations and persistence of savings.
What are the 3 steps of M&V?
Plan: M&V activities (document baseline energy, Plan and coordinate activities), Identify EEMs, Design EEMs
Install: M&V activities (Verify operations), install EEMs, commission
Maintain: M&V activities (gather data, verify savings, report), document project feedback, assure persistence
What are some energy-focused efforts that M&V are a fundamental part of?
Energy performance contractors and their customers.
Utility demand-side management program designers, managers, and evaluators.
Energy users implementing EEMs and wanting to quantify savings.
Facility managers properly accounting for energy budget variances.
Existing building managers seeking recognition for the environmental quality of their building operations.
New building designers wishing to account for the sustainability of their designs.
Water efficiency project developers.
Emission reduction trading program designers.
Energy users seeking ISO 50001 certification.
Financial backers, project managers, and implementors of the above applications will find a use of this document to establish a shared framework and ensure key elements are addressed.
Purpose: Manage Project-Related Risks
Application: An M&V Plan is a risk mitigation tool used when implementing energy efficiency projects. A carefully crafted M&V Plan can manage project risks for the parties involved while ensuring performance goals are met. Balancing risks requires stakeholders to fully understand the potential impacts from variations in financial, operational, and performance-related parameters.
Purpose: Provide Feedback on EEM Efficacy
Application: Accurate determination of realized energy savings provides facility owners and managers valuable feedback on their energy efficiency measures (EEMs). This feedback helps them adjust EEM design or operations to improve savings and achieve greater persistence of savings over time.
Purpose: Document Financial Transactions
Application: For some projects, the energy efficiency savings form the basis for savings-based financial payments and/or a guarantee in a performance contract. A well-defined and implemented M&V Plan serves as the basis for documenting performance in a transparent manner. The M&V Plan and Reports should be subject to independent verification.
Purpose: Enable Financing for Efficiency Projects
Application: A good M&V Plan increases the transparency and credibility of reports regarding the outcome of efficiency investments. It also increases the credibility of projections for the outcome of these efficiency investments. This credibility can increase the confidence that investors and sponsors have in energy efficiency projects, enhancing their chances of being financed.
Purpose: Improve Engineering Design and Facility Operations and Maintenance
Application: The preparation of a good M&V Plan encourages comprehensive project design by including all M&V costs in the project’s economics. Good M&V also helps managers discover and reduce maintenance and operating problems so that facilities can be run more effectively. Good M&V also provides feedback for future project designs.
Purpose: Manage Energy Budgets
Application: Even where savings are not planned, M&V techniques help managers evaluate and manage energy consumption and demand to account for variances from budgets. M&V techniques are used to adjust for changing facility-operating conditions to set proper budgets and account for budget variances.
Purpose: Validate Emission Reduction Outcomes
Application: Verifiable quantification of carbon emission reductions provides additional value to efficiency projects and greater benefit recognition for sustainability efforts.
Purpose: Support Evaluation of Efficiency Programs
Application: Utility- or government-sponsored programs for managing the use of an energy supply system can use M&V techniques to estimate the savings at specific energy user facilities. Using statistical techniques and other assumptions, the savings determined by M&V activities at selected individual facilities can be used at unmeasured sites to evaluate the performance of the entire program.
