RESOURCES

EXPERT Q&A:

REDUCE BUILDING
OPERATING
COSTS
Who can benefit from
access to energy data in your company?
WITH ENERGY DATA
Building and facilities managers are constantly under pressure to reduce operating costs and often
start to look for such opportunities in their energy management practices. For facilities executives
with a portfolio of buildings under management, barriers can arise with regards to energy data
collection and normalization, creating inefficiencies and headaches throughout the entire process.
Urjanet aligned an expert panel with Goby, LLC and Beacon Capital Partners to discuss what
challenges building and facility managers typically face and how to properly utilize energy data to
overcome these obstacles to get building maintenance back on track and to accurately assess the
performance and ROI on new retrofit projects.
THE PANEL:
Chris Happ

CEO

Jerome Montrone

Senior Vice President

Erik Becker

Vice President

For the full panel, please refer to Urjanets webinar replay, Reduce Building Operating Costs with Energy Data.

What are some best practices for tracking

building data?
GOBY: We find that people get the most value
from a portfolio view of their buildings when they
are tracking the data in a standardized format. It is
difficult to compare buildings when data from the
buildings in one region is tracked in Excel differently
from the way it is tracked in another area. Having a
cloud-based view of data that is normalized across
the entire set helps you find some really interesting
things that you may otherwise not have. For
example, you could compare a building in California
to one in Toronto once the systems and the number
of occupants have been factored into the equation.
Getting all of the data into a single place will help
tremendously with predictive analytics and help
companies make more intelligent decisions in
regards to all facets of sustainability.
What problems did you run into when you
first started to develop your energy efficiency
programs?
BEACON CAPITAL: One of the problems we ran
into when we developed our initial energy efficiency
programs involved the manual collection of energy
data. Sometimes the responsibility to collect
data fell into the hands of people who were not
proficient in understanding all of the contents on
the statements. They did not understand multipliers
or the minutia of the buildings. This complexity,
which led to human errors, made the data unreliable
and our analysis faulty. Additionally, the often
incomplete data sets caused us to have to work
harder to get the answers to our questions about
the cause of an issue.
What do your customers most commonly struggle
with when it comes to data acquisition?
GOBY: A major issue I see is the timeliness of the
data. We have several customers that are stuck in
a billing cycle in which data from paper invoices
is manually entered into a system. Typically, the
bill is due about 15 days from the day the invoice
is mailed and by the time it goes through the
approval process, the due date has already passed.
We are looking at $3,000 to $5,000 penalties each
time. From an accounting perspective, having the
data aggregated in one place definitely results in
avoiding costs.

What are the best sustainability metrics to track?

BEACON CAPITAL: I would recommend tracking
as many as you can, especially those related to
LEED points. We assess the building environment
for our tenants, cost savings, and the buildings
environmental impact. Therefore, we use economic
data, energy data, indoor environmental air quality
data, and more.
GOBY: I would say the key sustainability metrics
most people want to track are energy, water, and
waste. They are looking at what goes into and
out of a building and how much power it uses.
These factors are the basis for the carbon footprint
calculation.
What sorts of data challenges do you run into
when trying to compare the energy usage of
different buildings?
BEACON CAPITAL: It can be a challenge to gather
data from utilities and in some cases from tenants.
With so many different data formats and sources, all
kinds of inconsistencies arise. Additionally, different
billing cycles slow down the collection process and
your ability to look at the data in near real-time. As
a result, it is commonplace for energy and facilities
managers to rely on old data, making it more
difficult to identify and fix problems.

With so many different data

formats and sources, all kinds
of inconsistencies arise.
How do you begin to analyze building data?
GOBY: After the data is gathered in a single place,
it is important to normalize it. Its helpful for me
to know that energy is up this month, but there
may be a slue of different reasons. I had my team
pull information on Chicago buildings and Texas
buildings to compare their performances over the
summer because Chicago had an unusually mild
summer. We found that although the buildings in
Texas use quite a bit more electricity, they operate
more efficiently on a normalized basis. We realized
that the buildings in Chicago were set for a much
hotter summer and that the settings were not
adjusted for the actual ambient temperature.

How is your team aggregating and normalizing

your utility bill data?
BEACON CAPITAL: What makes data collection
especially difficult is having to consistently pull data
accurately across our entire portfolio from buildings
connected to eight different utilities in nine total
cities. Because data aggregation is one of the most
challenging areas, we ultimately look to companies
such as Goby and Urjanet. Having a group to do all
the data organization allows us to make more highlevel decisions and analytics at various scopes to
really gain more insight.
In order to extract the most value from the data, we
use it to target property managers and tenants of
underperforming buildings for enrollment in energy
efficiency programs. Normalizing the data allows
us to create fair competitions among buildings with
different energy efficiency starting points. Putting
the data in front of the facilities managers improves
their willingness to make the necessary changes, as
they can see their near real-time progress.

Normalizing the data allows

us to create fair competitions
among buildings with different
energy efficiency starting
points.
How do you know that the utility data is accurate
and audit-ready?
URJANET: There is not always a great way to ensure
that data is accurate or that you are getting all the
data on a bill when you are using a manual process.
Urjanets real trick is that we have automated the
collection and delivery of utility data. By using our
computer software, we are able to ensure that our
customers are getting absolutely everything that
is on the bill and that the information is accurate.
We also include a PDF image of all the bills, so our
customers can further validate that the information
they receive is correct.
Does a lack of data make you feel exposed to risk
or missed opportunities?
GOBY: Without data and the ability to scale it
across a platform, it is much more difficult to hone
in on the behaviors we want to correct because

they appear to be random anomalies rather than

patterns. Its not about just investing in systems, its
about identifying opportunities by looking at the
data and fine-tuning your dashboard and setting
alerts for levels that are out of the norm. Without
all the data, we would not be able to run enough
analysis to identify real areas for improvements.
How granular should data be?
GOBY: It depends on who is using the data. For
property or asset managers, generally monthly
data is frequent enough. For engineers and
building operators, it is much more important to
have 15-minute interval data, so they can fine tune
specific machines and systems and understand
when daily energy use peaks occur.

Without all the data, we would

not be able to run enough
analysis to identify real areas
for improvements.
What has your experience been like using
ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager?
BEACON CAPITAL: We use ENERGY STAR
Portfolio Manager across our portfolio and are very
committed to it. ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager
allows us to compare the energy consumption of
the buildings we have in certain regions, which we
like, but its granularity is not quite there yet: it falls
a bit short on the data side. For instance, I cant tell
when a buildings systems booted up in the morning
or when the heater or air conditioner turned on.
However, it does help motivate building occupants
in properties that are doing below average to
instigate positive change, as it gives an overall
picture of how energy-efficient the building is.
What are your thoughts on the New York
Citys announcement that it plans to decrease
greenhouse gas emissions by 80% from 2005
levels by 2050?
BEACON CAPITAL: The timing is terrific with the
global climate initiative summit and the climate
march going on, but Mayor De Blasio has to
work out some political components. While this
initiative has obvious environmental benefits, there
are some cost hurdles he will have to face. It has

been estimated that the retrofits required will cost

upwards of one billion dollars. Because of the high
upfront costs, I think that people will push back for
incentives and try to find other ways to offset the
costs. I am hoping that the momentum that is being
created on a global scale will help bring some of
these energy efficiency improvements into fruition.
Now, small and midsized property owners really
have to think about energy savings. Im optimistic
that its going to make some great changes.
Can an Excel spreadsheet be set up with an
external data connection and used for building
analysis?
GOBY: Ive read that Excel is the most commonly
used database in the world and its probably
where most ideas are hatched. For us, we look to
get anything that we are doing in Excel into our
platform. Excel is a logical starting place, but it falls
short when different spreadsheets arent synced
because they are tracked on various computers. It
is almost inevitable that someone accidentally adds
an extra column or interprets a field differently and
starts tracking the wrong data in that field. More
and more people are moving from Excel-based
tracking to cloud-based tracking because a common
platform across the country allows for better visibility
and data sharing.

A platform like ours also has social features, so we

are able to share best practices amongst our team
and with our community of users. For example, if I
am working on a parking garage lighting retrofit, I
can go into our platform to see who has ideas about
the type of bulbs that might be best for the project.
Additionally, it is much easier to identify anomalies
by putting alerts into a platform-based model. The
platform can quickly point out an inefficiency, like
when a sprinkler is on when its raining outside. We
couldnt automate that kind of alarm with something
like Excel. Even more importantly, we can share
analysis and reports with a much wider audience.
To what extent does energy data help you assess
the performance of equipment retrofits and ROI?
BEACON CAPITAL: Energy data provides a
management tool for us. We used to have to rely
on the chief engineer to describe the impact of a
retrofit on energy use relative to spending. Now
that we have visibility, we can use energy data as a
decision-making tool to determine what equipment
changes we should make and what the ROI will be.
We dont necessarily hold buildings for 20-30 years,
so we have to think a little bit more about the shortterm payback.

ABOUT URJANET
Urjanet is the worlds first provider of automated Big Energy Data, helping organizations across all industries make smarter, more
profitable and eco-friendly energy decisions. Urjanets data-as-a-service platform extracts utility bill, meter, and weather data directly
from the source, standardizes it, and then delivers it into existing energy management, accounting, business intelligence and
sustainability reporting systems. Commercial enterprises, school districts, and governments are able to improve financial performance
and energy efficiency and achieve sustainability goals with Urjanets high-quality, timely energy data. Urjanet is also the trusted data
source for many leading energy services and software providers and bill payment companies, enabling them to open new revenue
channels, enhance operational efficiency, and improve customer satisfaction. Urjanet was awarded 2014 Top Product of the Year by
Environmental Leader and is a privately-held company headquartered in Atlanta. For more information visit www.urjanet.com.