Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Power Systems, Energy, Environment

Energy efficiency potential assessment and

ranking for schools in Teresina City
YAMAKAWA E.K., AOKI, A.R., SIEBERT L.C., SILVA FILHO, J.F., LOPES, J.B., and LOPES,
W.G.R.

Abstract In this article it is described the field research for

twenty one schools in Teresina City in Piaui State in the Northeastern
Brazil, the modelling of the schools energy efficiency potential
(EEP) assessment system using a Multi Criteria Decision Aid
(MCDA) method and the model test through the ranking of the
visited schools according to the collected data.

Keywords Energy efficiency potential, multi criteria decision

aid, schools, performance assessment.

I. INTRODUCTION

T HIS documents describes the field research for twenty

one schools in Teresina City in Piaui State in the
Northeastern Brazil, the modelling of the schools energy
efficiency potential (EEP) assessment system using a Multi
Criteria Decision Aid (MCDA) [3] method and the model test
through the ranking of the visited schools according to the
collected data. This study will be used to implement an energy
efficiency management system for schools and it will allow
Eletrobras Piaui State Energy Distribution (EDPI) to know the
energy efficiency of the schools placed at Teresina City and
check the evolution of energy efficiency at these schools after
the implementation of energy efficiency programs to change
inefficient equipment and devices for some more efficient
ones and after educational actions with the students, teachers
and school employees.
Teresina city has high average temperatures mainly from
September to December, as it is shown at the Figure 1.
So, it is necessary to have air conditioning throughout the
school facilities, specially classrooms and administrative
rooms, libraries, laboratories and other spaces where students,
teachers and employees have to stay to perform the
educational activities. It is also necessary to have refrigeration
equipment for food and beverages for conservation and
chillers for water.
This work is supported by Eletrobras Piaui State Energy Distribution
(EDPI) within the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency (ANEEL)
Research and Development Program. This R&D project started in September
2012 and it will finisy in September 2014
E. K. Yamakawa is with Technology Institute for Development Lactec,
Curitiba, PR Brazil phone: +55 41 33616268, fax: +55 41 33616007; e-mail:
eduardo@lactec.org.br
L.C. Siebert is with Technology Institute for Development Lactec; e-
mail: luciano.siebert@lactec.org.br
A.R.Aoki is with is with Technology Institute for Development Lactec
and with Federal University of Parana (UFPR); e-mail: aoki@lactec.org.br
J.R. Silva Filho is with Eletrobras Piaui State Energy Distribution (EDPI)
and Piaui State Federal Institute (IFPI); e-mail: Joselito@cepisa.com.br
Month
Figure 1: Average temperature at Teresina. Source: [1]
According to [2] energy efficiency is very important in
school buildings as it is associated with comfort and air
quality conditions in their interior, and energy costs of these
buildings are associated with their main operational costs.
Moreover, school buildings differ from other types of
buildings because they are the places where children are
educated and have the opportunity to learn how to become
environmentally-aware citizens.
It is shown in [4] that educational buildings such as
kindergartens, schools and universities display many similar
design, operation and maintenance features in most countries.
The two most noteworthy similarities amongst these building
types are the high energy consumption and the necessity for
retrofitting many buildings within this sector.
A study presented in [5] explains that schools are the most
suitable type of building for the application of energy
efficiency and good indoor air quality measures. This is
justified by the fact that such measures can promote
sustainability to the future citizens, and even more, ensure a
comfortable and healthy environment for educational
purposes.
Some important conclusions are shown in [6] that health
and productivity of pupils and teachers is strongly affected by
the indoor environmental quality of their school, poor indoor
air quality has been reported in published literature, even so
for recently constructed school buildings. The same applies
for the energy consumption, with large amounts of energy
being wasted because no energy saving measures are applied
for the operation of schools.

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 Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Power Systems, Energy, Environment

Piaui State, where Teresina City is placed, has the third
worse human development index (HDI) and the second
highest illiteracy rate in Brazil. So, all the initiatives that can
be implemented in schools are very important for the regional
development and population life quality.
where many times the classrooms have no ceiling and
windows insulation. The lack of insulation is possible
to be observed on Figure 3 and Figure 4.

II. METHOD
First it was elaborated an interview instrument regarding
parameters related to energy efficiency such as facilities
conditions, opening times, lighting, air conditioning types,
high temperature complains, thermal insulation, number of
students, teachers and staff, energy consumption as well a
description of other important loads. After that, it was
randomly selected a sample of twenty one public and private
schools, geographically distributed uniformly in Teresina City
for the exploratory research. Then, it was performed
interviews with school principals using the interview
instrument and visited schools facilities to assess the main Figure 3: Walls with holes in a classroom (no
electrical loads. These data were used to create the energy thermal insulation)
efficiency indicators, which were used to model the EEP
assessment system using MCDA. The methodology process is
shown at Figure 2.

Interview MCDA Model for

Instrument Energy Efficiency
Construction Potential (EEP)
Assessment

Random Selection of
Determination
Schools
Schools Status quo
and EEP

Visit Schools Figure 4: air conditioning equipment installed in a

Rank Schools
Facilities and classroom with open windows
according to EEP
Perform Interviews c. Available area for planting trees: this indicator is not
directly related to the energy efficiency but with
Schools Energy environmental preservation, that is one of the
Energy Efficiency
Efficienc objectives of energy efficiency, so the larger the area
Indicators
Management System for planting trees, the highest the EEP;
Construction
Developmen d. Number of students/number of classrooms: for this
Figure 2: Method process indicator the more students per classroom the highest
the EEP because if there are more students per
classrooms;
The indicators used to evaluate the schools EEP are shown e. Class hours a day, class months a year, class days a week,
below as well as the relation with EEP: for these three indicators the objective is to verify the
a. Built area: for this indicator the higher the schools school operation daily, weekly and monthly and the
constructed area, the higher the EEP because most the school operate, the highest the EEP;
potentially there will have more loads installed at the f. Air conditioning kind and age: for this indicator the new
facilities; and split air conditioning has the lowest EEP while the
b. School age: for this indicator the older the school, the old and windows air conditioning has the highest EEP;
higher EEP because potentially the technology of the g. Proportion of the school attended by air conditioning: for
installed loads have low efficiency such incandescent this indicator the highest the proportion of the school
lamps, window air conditioning, old refrigerators and attended by air conditioning the highest the EEP
freezers, and electrical installation are old with because there are more installed air conditioning
degraded cables, panels and protection devices equipment and consequently more loads to be regarded
generating energy losses. The thermal insulation of the and if necessary substituted on a energy efficiency
classrooms of the old buildings are potentially worse, program;

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 Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Power Systems, Energy, Environment

h. Food and beverage refrigeration existence and age: for 33%

this indicator it was evaluated the quantity and the 22%
existence of the refrigerators, freezers and water 18%
chillers at the visited schools. The highest amount of 21% 27%
these kind of loads and the oldest, the highest the EEP.
i. High temperature complaints by the students, teachers
40%
and school employees: this indicator is used to
30%
represent the adequacy of the air conditioning
38% 30%
equipment and facilities thermal insulation. The levels
of temperature complaints were no complaints, a 32%
few complaints, many complaints and chronic
complaints. The highest the complaints level, the 41%
highest the EEP.
j. Illumination kind indoor and outdoor: for this indicator it 29% 5%
was verified the kind of lamps like incandescent,
tubular fluorescent, compact fluorescent, mercury 22%
vapor, sodium vapor, metal halide, and LEDs. The
75%
lowest energy efficient the lamps are the highest the
EEP. 25%
12%

The indicators were grouped in fundamental point of
view (FPV) named Infrastructure, Operations, Air
conditioning and Illumination and the related indicators are
shown at Figure 5.
Figure 6: Fundamental point of views and indicators with
correspondent weights
The indicators scale was transformed from ordinal scale,
where the values were related to the indicator itself but had no
relation with the other indicators to a cardinal scale, where the
indicators had an equivalent scale for all indicators using the
Macbeth demo version software, to make it possible to
integrate all the indicators in an overall score.
The overall score for each school is given by the equation 1:

Where:
is the overall score in terms of energy efficiency
potential;
is the weight for the indicators and FPVs
is the impact of in the FPV j
is the partial value of in the jth FPV

Figure 5: Fundamental point of views and indicators
After the determination of the FPVs it was calculated the
weights for indicators and fundamental point of views using
the vision of the process decision maker, that in the case of
this project is the project manager from Eletrobras Piaui State
Energy Distribution (EDPI) and the software Macbeth demo
version and the results are shown at Figure 6.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
After the model creation for EEP using MCDA it was
possible to draw the status quo of each school using the
interviews results and to rank the schools according to the
EEP. An example of the status quo for a school is shown at
Figure 7.

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the air conditioning equipment are not effective of there are

School 1
problems regarding the thermal insulation.

IV. CONCLUSIONS
Data collected in the interviews and site surveys allowed
the researchers to know the school operations and main loads,
that were very important for the construction of energy
efficiency indicators. The energy efficiency management
system that is under development in this R&D project will
help Eletrobras Piaui State Energy Distribution (EDPI) to
direct programs and educational actions to the schools that
have the highest potential for energy efficiency, improving
not only the energy efficiency of the schools but also the
conditions of the classrooms and other schools facilities for
the students and teachers.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors acknowledge Eletrobras Piaui State Energy
Distribution (EDPI) and Brazilian Energy Regulatory Agency
(ANEEL) for the financial support.
Figure 7: EEP status quo example for a school
REFERENCES
After the determination of the status quo for the visited [1] Home page of Climate-Data.org available at http://pt.climate-
schools, it was calculated the EEP score for these schools and data.org/location/3935/. Acessed in December, 10th, 2013.
[2] A. Dimoudi, P. Kostarela. Energy monitoring and conservation potential
rank them according to this score. The ranking of the visited in school buildings in the C climatic zone of Greece. Renewable Energy
schools is shown at Table 1. [S.I.], v. 34, n. 1, p. 289-296, 2009..
It was possible to observe that the schools with highest EEP [3] C.A. Bana e Costa, L. Ensslin, E.C.Corra, J. Vasnick. Decision Support
have more air conditioning and illumination loads, operated Systems in action: Integrated application in a multicriteria decision aid
process. European Journal of Operational Research [S.I.], v. 113, n. 2, p.
not only during the day but also at night and have activities for 315-335, 3// 1999.
the local communities on weekends. [4] H. Erhorn, T. Mroz, O. Morck, F. Schmidt, L. Schoff, K.E.Thomsen.
The Energy Concept AdviserA tool to improve energy efficiency in
Table 1: EEP ranking for schools educational buildings. Energy and Buildings [S.I.], v. 40, n. 4, p. 419-
428, 2008.
Ranking School Score [5] T.G. Theodosiou, K.T. Ordoumpozanis. Energy, comfort and indoor air
quality in nursery and elementary school buildings in the cold climatic
1 School 1 104,4
zone of Greece. Energy and Buildings [S.I.], v. 40, n. 12, p. 2207-2214,
2 School 2 99,0 2008.
3 School 3 98,1 [6] E.G. Dascalaki, V.G. Sermepetzoglou. Energy performance and indoor
4 School 4 97,7 environmental quality in Hellenic schools. Energy and Buildings [S.I.],
5 School 5 92,0 v. 43, n. 2-3, p. 718-727, 2011.
6 School 6 89,3
7 School 7 87,1 E. K. Yamakawa (M2012) received his B.S. and M.S. degree in electrical
8 School 8 82,4 engineering from the Federal University of Parana and currently is pursuing
9 School 9 76,9 the doctoral degree in industrial engineering at Federal University of Santa
10 School 10 64,9 Catarina. He is currently a Researcher at Technology Institute for
11 School 11 63,6 Development (LACTEC) at Power Systems Division. He has more than 10
years of industrial experience in product development for telecommunication
12 School 12 63,0 equipment and home appliances.
13 School 13 61,6 A. R. Aoki (M2012) received his doctor (2003) and master degree (1999) at
14 School 14 58,1 the Federal School of Engineering in Itaub, Brazil. He is a senior researcher
15 School 15 47,8 at the Institute of Technology for Development (LACTEC), professor at the
16 School 16 46,1 Federal University of Paran in Curitiba, Brazil and a committee meber of
17 School 17 40,5 Cigr C6 and IEEE Power & Energy Society. His main research interests are
application of intelligent systems for smart grids.
18 School 18 37,5
L. C. Siebert is a control systems engineer working as a researcher at the
19 School 19 35,9
Institute of Technology for Development (LACTEC). He is also a Master
20 School 20 33,3 student with the Federal University of Paran in Curitiba, Brazil. His research
21 School 21 29,2 interesets includ demand-side management, self-sealing systems, dsitributed
generation and robotics.
The complaint about high temperatures was happening in J. F. Silva Filho is an electrical engineer at Eletrobras Piaui State Energy
Distribution (EDPI) and currently he is the head of Energy Efficiency and
many schools, what is a big problem because it harms the R&D department and lecturer at Federal Institute of Piaui State. Also he is
students and teachers performance. It also means that the or currently pursuing the master degree in environment development.

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