Commercial, Demand Management, Energy Efficiency, Industrial  -  September 26, 2016

DOE launches EMIS program, 18 inaugural partners

The U.S. DOE has launched a new program within the Better Buildings Initiative aimed at helping commercial building reduce their energy use. 

The program, referred to as the Smart Energy Analytics campaign, was designed to help establish best practices for installations of energy management information systems and accelerate the use of cost-effective, energy-saving building analytics platforms and processes in commercial buildings nationwide. The DOE announced the program's launch — and 18 inaugural participants including Macy's, Whole Foods and Wendy's — as part of Smart Cities Week at the White House.

The DOE said the Smart Energy Analytics campaign emphasizes the use of energy management and information systems, often referred to as EMIS, and monitoring-based commissioning strategies to determine how buildings systems are working together and uncover opportunities to cut energy consumption and improve overall building performance. In its first year, the campaign is expected to provide expert guidance and technical assistance to participants in order to facilitate the application of EMIS in 80 million square feet of floor space. 

The program's first 18 partners have committed to applying EMIS strategies and technologies in more than 1,800 buildings, the equivalent of 50 million square feet, according to the DOE.

The Wendy’s Company, for example, has a pilot project underway to identify the best software solution to move all 300 of their company-owned restaurants onto EMIS analytics. As part of the Better Buildings Challenge, Wendy's has pledged to reduce energy consumption in its U.S. company-owned restaurants by 20% per transaction by 2025. 

Macy's committed to drawing on its years of successful experience using fault detection and diagnostics across its portfolio of more than 700 stores to share best practices and help inform other organizations in the Smart Energy Analytics campaign.

As the most recent under the Better Buildings Alliance, the DOE said the campaign builds on the successes of the Interior Lighting Campaign, the Lighting Energy Efficiency in Parking Campaign and the Advanced Rooftop Unit Campaign. Altogether, these campaigns have saved approximately
1.3 trillion kilowatt hours, 14.47 trillion British Thermal Units, 951 million pounds of CO2 and
$136 million dollars.

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