GridPoint’s new e-book “The Energy Manager’s Guide to Real-Time Submetering Data” details industry standards and programs related to submetering for energy managers. Submetering drills deeper into energy-usage data necessary for next generation energy management strategies, according to GridPoint.
Asked how difficult it is for energy managers to make the business case for a submetering installation, Mark Straton, senior vice president with GridPoint said, “The main driver for submetering authorization is a financial payback of about 24 months and we prove this for the financial team during our trial process. In these trials, we typically submeter and monitor as much equipment as possible to get an accurate energy consumption footprint and prove the business case, and then when going to mass rollout, we selectively submeter and monitor the areas most critical to the business operation and impactful to the investment ROI.”
In addition to the direct energy savings provided by a traditional energy management system, a next generation data-driven energy management system integrates equipment-level submetering, big data analytics and cloud computing to unlock seven hidden benefits, according to GridPoint:
- Optimized Equipment Performance;
- Smarter Alarms;
- Integrated Sustainability;
- Dynamic Control;
- Financial Verification;
- Proactive Demand Response and Peak Shaping; and
- Intelligent Building Design.
GridPoint’s ebook provides guidelines or requirements for submetering and their associated energy efficiency organizations, programs and standards bodies including: ENERGY STAR, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency; the Energy Efficiency Resource Standards, promoted by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy; the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification of the US Green Building Council; the new Standard 90.1-2013, published by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers; and ISO 50001, issued by the International Organization for Standardization.
