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Approach1. Energy metering and monitoring

system, which delivers reliable and

detailed data

2. Data analytics to enable cost-effective

and immediate energy saving measures

But what actually are

the requirements?

Use Cases

More than 50 use cases were collected.

All of them relate to at least one of the following categories: Energy, Maintenance, Automation, Safety

and Compliance.

Safety issues still remain underestimated in commercial buildings although facility defects can lead to

substantial damages and financial losses. Use cases referring to safety and compliance only became

apparent when additional information and hints were provided by the interviewer.

People with different job roles were interested in the same use cases. Half of the use cases were

mentioned by at least two actors.

T hep r io ri ti sed r esul tsco rr el at ew it h t heq u an ti ty A ll cat eg or iesa remo reo r l ess i mpo rt an t.

of usecases percategory.

Anenergy metering and monitoring systemshouldsupport energy savings measuresbut additionally,

it should support maintenance processes as well assafety and compliance issue resolution. All three

can be backed by an effectiveautomatedtime scheduling.

Understanding Energy - A Requirements Analysis for Cost-

Effective Energy Metering System in Commercial BuildingsHanna Wegerich, Urte Claudia Zahn, Dr. Marco Blumendorf

From Use Cases to System Requirements

References[1] Laustsen, J. 2008, Energy Efficiency Requirements in Building

Codes, Energy Efficiency Policies for New Building. Available from:

http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/

Building_Codes.pdf.

[2] United States Environmental Protection Agency n.d., Energy

Efficiency in Non-Governmental Buildings. Available from:

http://www.epa.gov/statelocalclimate/ local/topics/commercial-

industrial.html.

[3] European Standards 2006, Facility Management Part 1: Terms

and Definitions. EN 15221-1:2006.

[4] GEFMA 2009, Energiemanagement - Grundlagen und

Leistungsbild.GEFMA 124-1.

[5] Zeifman, M., Akers, C., Roth, K. 2011, NonintrusiveAppliance Load

Monitoring (NIALM) forEnergy Control in Residential Buildings,

Proceedings of International Conference on Energy Efficiency in

Domestic Appliances and Lighting (EEDAL), Copenhagen.

Key System Requirements

1. TRANSPARENCY.Better transparency of energy consumption and the associated cost as a daily to yearly

overview and on device level enables realisation of savings potential.

2. AUTOMATIC PROVISION OF DATA and UBIQUITOUS AVAILABILITY OF REPORTS AND TRENDS.

Convenient access to energy data gives an overview and allows informed decisions to be made

regarding investments.

3. ANALYSIS SUPPORT. Automatic analysis and interpretation of collected data, comparisons and

predictions are required to make sense of data and put measurements into perspective. This includes

the automated derivation of valuable recommendations and hints as a basis for action.

4. FLEXIBILITY. A flexible system, in terms of customisable periods under consideration, views and type of

key figure, provides detailed energy information, taking the companysspecific needs into account.

5. REAL TIME DATA. Once data is easily accessible, the demand for real-time data usually arises to support

the correlation of increasing consumption and actual events, as well as to take immediate measures and

to micro-manage energy consumption.

6. RELIABLE DATA. Trustworthy information pertaining to groups or individual appliances and their

respective energy consumption is required to derive the appropriate measure of action. Reliability can

be increased by a breakdown according to spatial data of appliances or appliance types.

7. ACCURACY. Accurate values assure reliable recommendations of energy savings measures, more

precise return on investment calculation and better conclusions on savings achieved.

8. COMPLIANCE. Key figures required by international standards and provided by the system can be

correlated in order to ensure safety and compliance and to gain t he opportunity of tax reimbursement.

9. EASE OF USE AND MOTIVATION. Simple overviews and intuitive operation of applications increase

energymanagersmotivation to use provided information and insights. If the data presented is overly

complex and incomprehensible, there is an increased likelihood of a decline of system use.

Fig. 2: Tag cloud based on unstructured interview data (interview transcripts in German)

F ig . 3 : Q ua nt it y o f u se ca ses p er ca tego ry F ig . 4 : A vera ge impo rt an ce of ea ch use case catego ry

Current Situation

Buildings are responsible for 40% of total

end energy consumption worldwide[1].

Energy accounts for 30% of total corporate

operating costs[2].

Savings potential Influencing user behaviour through feedback

Improving efficiency of heating and cooling systems,

hot water heating, lighting and other appliances

Improving energy efficiency of building envelope

CO2 and energy cost reduction via deployment of

renewable energy

Implementation of energy management systems

Challenge Key barriers: long payback periods, missing capital,

feasibility of implementation, etc.

Experienced energy managers must define measures

based on past experience, rather than based on

tangible data

No immediate or proactive reaction on energy misuse

possible

MethodA study with participants from different

relevant areas

Objective:to understand respective needs

and demands, learn about challenges in

commercial buildings and obtain use cases

to derive functional and general system

requirements

Steps:structured, in-depth interviews with

20 experts, meticulous documentation of

use cases, online survey for priorisation of

use casesFig. 1: Interviewees and their job roles

ENERGY MANAGERS (incl. energy consultants) try to

optimise and reduce energy usage within a building or

company. They derive potential for improvement and

implement energy saving measures based on available

data and calculations (e.g. in accordance with ISO 50001

of energy management systems).

MANAGING DIRECTORS and REAL ESTATE MANAGERS

of industrial enterprises are mainly interested in key

performance indicators (KPIs) like energy cost per m2

and energy cost reduced. They are also led by corporate

image (e.g. reduction of CO2 emission), employ-

ee satisfaction, innovation and competitive advantage.

FACILITY MANAGERSare safeguarding the

organisations core processes. This includes

increasing the efficiency of workplaces,

ensuring health and safety for employees,

preservation and leveraging of corporate

assets, ensuring compliance with regula-

tions and reduction of operating costs [3].

Energy management may also be an inte-

gral component of facility management

and in this case, they must optimise energy

supply costs without limiting end-user

comfort in terms of facility availability and

operating life of buildings and facilities [4].

Main Target Groups

Tab. 1: Top five use cases in each category

ConclusionThe study carefully evaluates needs and

demands of business executives, facility

and energy managers, in order to obtain

use cases, as well as general and

functional system requirements. We have

foundnine key system requirements for

an energy metering and monitoring

system that will enable an enhanced and

straightforward derivation of energy

saving measures in commercial buildings.

smartB ApproachsmartB is developing an innovative and scalable

building energy metering and monitoring system

based on NILMand advanced sensor technologies.

In addition, the solution provides a robust and real-

time analysis toolset by means of disaggregated

data. This allows for the optimisation of energy

usage,energy savingsandcost-cutting maintenance

measures which makes the technology a feasible

approach to overcome traditional barriers for

realising efficiency projects in commercial buildings.

32

9

8

4

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Energy

Automation

Maintenance

Safety & Compliance

Energy

Automation

Maintenance

Safety & Compliance

N ot i mp ort an t I mp or tan t

Two-thirdsof top5 usecases require disaggregatedenergydata,which shows thesignificanceof broken-downenergy information.

50%of theusecases require realtimedata.

Commercial UseOur market analysis showed that several solutions

address a few of the requirements, but none of them

provide a viable approach for monitoring commercial

buildings. Most commercial energy management systems

do not include measurement and control technology.

Data is either gathered manually (up to 80%) or an

extensive number of (sub-)meters is required. Both

approaches are expensive and inefficient. To reduce

required meters, software-based analyses and non-

intrusive load monitoring (NILM) technologies [5] can be

applied, but needsophisticated high resolution meters.

www.smartb.eu info@smartb.eu