When we think of a master plan, we typically associate the term with large-scale new construction projects, renovations, demolition, building placement and vehicular and pedestrian movement around a site. Strategic facility managers often devise infrastructure master plans for their facilities, whether they consist of one building or multiple buildings in a campus setting. FMs plan for and around the physical shells and specific process areas of the facilities that manufacture goods and provide secure areas for research.
However, in the world of energy efficiency and sustainability, an energy master plan (EMP) is a key element of planning that is often overlooked.
Fundamentals of developing an energy master plan
An EMP provides a holistic, comprehensive methodology of planning for a facility’s current and future energy needs, instead of a one-off approach to fixing inefficient or broken systems. An effective EMP identifies and evaluates a facility’s current energy uses, consumption and actual needs. It identifies inefficiencies and provides conservation solutions to help FMs achieve greater value based on a feasible and realistic return on investment for identified projects.
Benchmarking is a process of analyzing how and when a facility uses energy to understand key drivers for energy use and provides a reference point for a facility’s energy performance. An energy baseline provides a basis for comparing energy performance during a set period of time. Energy baselines can be normalized based on variables such as weather or production levels. With that information, a facility can develop its benchmark(s) to measure itself against industry standards or against its own achievements.
Once data is accurately managed for a facility and the facility is operating at more efficient levels, an EMP then provides a path for taking the facility to the next level. That next level may, for example, involve installing more sophisticated utility-monitoring technologies (e.g., smart meters) to capture and monitor even more data. As another example, it could involve the evaluation and construction of a rightsized combined heat and power plant, instead of one that could have been overdesigned (and overpriced) based on previous inefficient operations.
With an effective EMP, facility staff can forgo the typical fragmentary approach of trying to fix equipment as it breaks down or finding out about wasteful operations months down the line after set-points have gone awry. Using measured, accurate energy data and actively monitoring that data, FMs can save time and money that can then be reinvested to implement additional energy conservation measures (ECMs), many of which could address deferred maintenance and improve the safety and comfort of FM personnel.
What is a strategic approach to developing an effective EMP? An integrated architectural/energy engineering team (A/EE) will conduct data reviews, conduct site visits and work with FM personnel and facility stakeholders to evaluate existing conditions and future needs of a facility. Understanding the actual energy needs of the facility versus what the facility is using is key — especially since the odds are that opportunities for energy efficiency exist in the first place.
Data gathering and identification of ECMs are two of the main steps taken when developing an EMP. To prepare for the development of an EMP, some of the typical requests from the A/EE team include:
- Historical utility data for the site. An energy engineer will assess utility usage, gain an understanding of trends, reference the data during facility inspections and use that data to inform the EMP.
- Original design and building construction drawings. For aged structures and those that have undergone extensive retrofits, original drawings are not always retained or obtainable. However, any building design/construction information available will help inform A/EE team members before they come to the facility for the site visit(s).
- Copy of capital the improvement plan. When appropriate, providing information about future planning, especially where capital dollars and construction are already planned, will inform the A/EE team about certain ECMs that can be planned to have the least impact on operations.
- Equipment lists. During an energy assessment, the assessor usually generates or revises an existing equipment list. Like the request for drawings, these lists are not always up to date, but they can help inform the A/EE team before coming to the site.
- Energy assessments previously performed at the facility. Although the A/EE team should not rely solely on the work of others, past assessments can facilitate bringing the A/EE up to speed and inform some of the whys behind previous input, approaches and decisions made relating to energy management at the facility.
The more data and information the FM can provide to the A/EE team prior to the site visit, the better informed the A/EE will be and the more efficient the site visit. In addition, the FM team that gathers the data will have a better understanding of what the A/ EE will be investigating and asking about in followup questions.
Depending on the number of facilities, the size of the campus, etc., the A/EE team will conduct site visits in order to visually inspect the existing building construction and operation. This generally involves nondestructive investigation of multiple types of systems, including but not limited to heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, lighting systems, boilers, metering and building automation systems (BAS).
The A/EE team also will interview the FM and staff, including maintenance personnel, to identify problems or challenges with existing systems and their operation. Meetings with personnel can assist A/EEs with identifying potential improvements to operations and maintenance procedures. Depending on the facility type and needs, and if a more detailed analysis is needed, the A/EE team could perform even more detailed building assessments, an electrical load study, a structural load study and a code/fire/life safety analysis.
Choosing energy conservation measures for implementation
After the data/information gathering process, the A/EE team will perform a detailed energy analysis of the facilities. One of the main goals of the EMP is to identify opportunities for reducing energy consumption and implementing the ECMs identified. The A/EE team may identify a range of ECMs — from incorporating new energy design and construction standards for projects to installing and repairing utility metering and implementing lighting retrofits. Other ECMs can include upgrading a BAS and replacing insulation and windows.
When evaluating ECMs, first costs and return on investment are obvious values to consider. Choosing to quickly implement the more impactful ECMs, such as those based on immediate cost savings, can show the importance of the EMP, and sometimes more importantly, strengthen the perception of the importance of an EMP. Implementation of ECMs that show good ROI provides further momentum, and money, for implementing additional ECMs.
ECMs are often chosen based on the facility’s threshold for first costs and payback timeframes. For the manufacturing sector, ROI usually must be 18-24 months or less to be acceptable for top management to approve implementation.
ECMs relating to design and construction usually do not entail implementation costs. For example, the facility could incorporate energy standards that require a capital improvement project that exceeds a certain construction cost to decrease energy use intensity or other criteria by a certain percentage. Energy standards can include targets for energy consumption on a perbuilding basis, along with an overall campus goal, if applicable, for an energy reduction percentage. As one example, Cummins, Inc. is working to achieve a 25 percent energy reduction (per dollar revenue) by 2016 based on its 2005 baseline. Cummins’ approach encompasses 73 facilities, 19 of which are manufacturing plants.1
The facility could also choose to develop and implement an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 50001 Energy Management System, which is a comprehensive energy management system that can be applied to any type of facility. The U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Council for Energy-Efficient Manufacturing are collaborating on the Superior Energy Performance (SEP) program, which is an energy management system based on ISO 50001 and geared toward industrial facilities. According to figures based on 40 facilities participating in the SEP program since December 2013, the average cost of implementing ISO 50001 and being certified to SEP came to US$319,000 per facility, with fully loaded costs ranging from US$207,000 to US$498,000.2 According to the statistics for the nine facilities that implemented ISO 50001 and received SEP certification, they saw cost effective payback periods of 1.7 years, on average.
Implementing a metering plan is another ECM necessary to measure and monitor a facility’s energy consumption. Submetering can be even more impactful in operations where equipment or processes are known to dominate a facility’s energy uses. In addition to metering installation, the accuracy of metered data also needs to be verified to assess whether correct data is informing a facility’s decisionmaking processes. Lighting retrofits often result in some of the fastest ROIs. As with any analysis, lighting ECMs should outline first costs and ROI of replacing lamps and ballasts with high efficiency upgrades that will result in energy savings, including savings associated with O&M.
While FMs can choose various ECMs related to increasing energy efficiency, they also can choose alternative and/or renewable energy projects for consideration within the EMP. As mentioned previously, before developing a new CHP and steamgeneration system, for example, the A/EE team should study electrical power demand, natural gas demand, chilled water demand, steam demand, heating hot water demand and domestic hot water demand at the facility in order to assist in examining energy balances for combined heating and power concepts.
The facility’s future growth and how it will impact future utility demands should be considered as well in order to right-size the project. Key considerations in the EMP should include energy purchasing strategies for electricity, natural gas, oil and other energy sources used at a facility, along with opportunities for incentives to help fund energy-related projects (e.g., grants, utility-based incentives, etc.).
Knowing which ECMs to choose going forward involves a combination of facility management feedback related to first costs and payback analysis and understanding the threshold for ROI and risk. In addition to material cost savings with various ECMs, other considerations should include maintenance staff being “freed up” to address other deferred maintenance items, which in turn will reduce the amount of maintenance work that needs to be performed, to marketing/branding aspects that enhance the public’s opinion of the carbon emissions that could be offset by the implementation of ECMs.
In contrast, in instances where certain manufacturing processes are mission critical at a facility, the EMP can carve out areas of operation that should not be subject to certain standards of the EMP (e.g., air exchanges based on health/safety codes). The purpose of such carve-outs is not to ignore large energy consumption areas, but to be realistic in drawing boundaries and goal setting within the EMP that fit with the company’s business model.
Implementation of an EMP
An EMP is more than a study — it is a plan. Like an infrastructure master plan, EMPs are meant to be implemented to avoid piecemeal, duplicative efforts in order to better plan for, monitor and continually improve the energy strategy for a facility.
As the strategies for ECMs and energy procurement, as examples, are adopted by the facility during the development phase, each project that meets energy efficiency and conservation guidelines should be evaluated through a project assessment report and a life cycle cost analysis. If it has been determined that a facility’s energy performance will be measured based on certain metrics (e.g., mmBtu per gross square foot), the FM team should report energy efficiency and conservation using consistent metrics. The EMP also should continue to outline the steps for continual improvement of the energy performance of a facility, including steps for monitoring energy use. Commissioning, retro-commissioning, measurement and verification should be performed regularly and as needed, according to established protocols outlined in the EMP.
Capital improvement plans should be taken into consideration with any EMP opportunity that correlates with improvement projects. For example, if a facility is undergoing planned renovations during which boilers will be replaced, ensure boiler replacement and retrofits are taken into account with any related ECMs to avoid duplicative efforts and provide consistency in infrastructure and energy master planning. In addition, instead of requesting funding pursuant to an EMP, the FM can take advantage of capital dollars that have already been allocated for a project.
As with any plan, it is what the FM team makes of it. A feasible EMP that is developed with realistic, sustainable growth in mind for a facility is a worthy investment, especially when it is implemented.
REFERENCES
1. www4.eere.energy.gov/challenge/energy-performance/cummins
2. Peter Therkelsen, Ridah Sabouni, Aimee McKane and Paul Scheihing. Assessing the Costs and Benefits of the Superior Energy Performance Program, 2013 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Industry, Niagara Falls, New York, USA.
