❮ Projects page Energy Efficient Buildings Hub

Spatial Analysis Project:

The EEB Hub will be procuring an anonymized data set from PECO for building energy use in its service area. PECO rolled out “smart meters” to its customers and has been collecting detailed energy usage information for buildings in the region for several years and has not been able to do much with the ever-growing data set. The EEB Hub is entering an agreement with PECO to perform advanced analytics with this data set. The EEB Hub will apply its technical capacity to consolidate this large dataset into smaller, more usable sub-sets for the fellow to translate into GIS. The EEB Hub will also be available to assist the fellow with data processing requests that may emerge.

This kind of data set has not been available before this time, so this grant is very well timed to take advantage of this rare opportunity. This project has far-reaching potential throughout the country, as these types of large data sets are expected to continue to emerge as other utilities roll out similar smart metering technology. Our analysis will set a precedent for these emerging data sets.

We envision using this data in a number of ways:

• utilize the graphical capabilities and geospatial analysis features of GIS to provide a comparative analysis of energy consumption by building type and location
• show the variation in seasonal energy use to determine potential energy savings for heating and cooling technologies
• normalize energy use based on available meteorological data to identify a weather-independent energy baseline
• identify regions with the highest retrofit potential

Data available:

• Energy Information Agency - Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey, 2003
• Benchmarking disclosure data (all sets available now)
• Philadelphia - Public and Private Bldgs 2012 (private bldg data are available anonymized to zip level except for hospitals and warehouses)
• NYC - Public and Private Bldgs 2012, 2013
• Washington DC - Public Bldgs 2009 to 2012
• San Francisco - Public Bldgs 2011, 2012
• Minneapolis - Public Bldgs 2012
• PECO data (expected to be available by May 15)
• Utility Energy Cost
• Electricity
• Natural Gas
• Heating Oil
• Code
• Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency
• Building Codes Assistance Project

Maps and Reports that will be created:

This project maps commercial building energy use for the PECO service territory, which is made up of Philadelphia and five surrounding counties. The anonymized data, available at time intervals will allow for an examination of the varying energy consumption patterns over time. Coupled with weather data, the EEB Hub would like to be able to extrapolate regional variations in energy usage. Understanding these differences will help the EEB Hub and PECO better target energy efficiency programs.

How the maps and reports will be used:

This project will be used to develop the EEB Hub’s strategy to transform the market for energy efficiency in existing buildings, zooming out to the national scale and examining several case studies to determine whether some combination of geography, energy cost, and policy has a discernible effect on regional building energy use. The results will help guide EEB Hub policy initiatives.