Building Energy Performance Analytics

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Building Energy Performance Analytics (BEPA) is a collection of features and tools within the IBM® Envizi ESG Suite Interval Metering Analytics module. BEPA analyzes your meter data to enable you to identify and remove inefficiencies in your operations, so as to drive better energy performance in your buildings.

BEPA provides organizations and operations managers the following outcomes:
  • Gain insight into inefficient energy consumption
  • Increase a facility manager's visibility and response time to known issues
  • Improve maintenance programming and performance based on information driven decision making

Building Energy Performance Analytics summary page

To access BEPA, on the Envizi ESG Suite home page, click the Building Energy Performance quick link. You can also access BEPA through the Optimize menu.

When you first access BEPA, the Building Energy Performance Analytics summary page is displayed. The summary page provides you with an overview of recent activity related to energy waste issues and the quantification of energy waste in dollar terms over the last 30 days, and also provides other links that you can use to access more details. The Building Energy Performance Analytics summary page shows you only locations where the location setting monitoring solution is set to BEPA, and where at least one meter in the location has an expected profile configured. If neither of these requirements are met, the location does not show up in the BEPA dashboards. Therefore, you should complete the configuration of meters and expected profiles before you use BEPA.

Energy Waste dashboards

The BEPA Energy Waste dashboards provide an estimate of the cost of energy waste issues and a way to check how effectively energy waste issues are being managed. The Energy Waste Cost dashboard applies a calculated unit rate for each meter to estimate the cost of each consumption variance alert. The Energy Waste Issues dashboard does not quantify the cost of energy waste issues, but shows the trend of energy waste issues derived from consumption and demand alert rules, helping you to track how effectively energy waste issues are being managed.

Access the Energy Waste dashboards through the Analyze menu on both the Building Energy Performance Analytics summary page and the Location summary page. You can also access the location level Energy Waste Cost dashboards through the Building Energy Performance Analytics summary page by clicking the Location's View Details link. The dashboards at each level are similar, with the organization level dashboard breaking down issues by location, and the location level dashboards breaking down issues by meter.

Cost savings potential

The energy waste costs and cost savings potential are calculated by applying a unit rate to consumption alerts that are triggered from absolute, variance, and performance rules. The unit rate is determined by the following hierarchy:
  1. Meter data charges and time of use schedules. For more information about attributing costs to meter data, see the related link.
  2. A nominal rate that is configured at a location level.
  3. A default unit price that is configured in BEPA settings at Admin > Interval Meter Analytics > BEPA Settings.
  4. If none of the previous items are configured, a default value of $1 per unit of consumption is applied.

Root cause and building services identification

The Energy Waste Cost and Issue dashboards provide a way to identify and classify issues by root cause and the related building services. To use the feature, you must select the following options when you respond to any BEPA issues:
Root cause
Select a category.
Related building services
Select a subcategory.

If you do not select a category or a subcategory for a BEPA issue, the root cause and related building services are shown as Not defined on the Energy Waste Cost and Issue dashboards.

Common root causes and building services are available by default. To add custom values to the lists, click Admin > Issue Tracking, and then click either Custom Categories or Custom Sub Categories.

The following list is an example of root causes:
  • Manual override of building schedule
  • Set point incorrectly configured
  • Contractor fault
  • Early call for air con
  • Unscheduled late shutdown
  • Mechanical fault
  • Sensor fault
  • Pneumatic fault
  • Out of hours use of space
  • Cleaners
The following list is an example of building services and related items:
  • HVAC - AHU
  • HVAC - chiller
  • HVAC - boiler
  • Car park lighting
  • General plug load
  • General lighting
  • Safety lighting