Measurement and Verification of Energy Savings at Small Commercial Facilities

Alex H. W. Lee, Conservation Services Group, Inc.

Keywords

Abstract

In 1997, a U.S. electric utility company initiated a three-year energy efficiency program to target small commercial customers in the service area with less than 18 kW of monthly demand, Traditionally, the target group is very difficult to reach with energy efficiency programs and is generally cash-constrained. This paper will discuss the measurement and verification (M&V) aspects of the program and the implementation of the M&V activities which meet the requirements of Options A and B of the IPMVP (International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol, US DOE 1997). For Option A, monitoring of the energy savings involved the measurements of pre- and postretrofit demand including demand diversity and use of agreed-upon or stipulated run hours. Option B is similar to Option A except the run hours were measured rather than stipulated. Several case studies of lighting retrofit projects are presented, including the statistical
selection of customers, the difficulties encountered, the lessons learned, and the results achieved with the successful execution of the M&V plan. In all cases, the energy savings measured exceeded the projected energy savings by at least 11%. The information provided in this paper is intended to assist in developing more effective energy efficiency programs to reach smaller commercial customers in the future.