External Benchmarking: Using the Peer Inventory

1. External Benchmarking:Using the Peer Inventory UCD Training February 28, 2019

2. Definition A performance benchmark is a numerical standard that is used to compare two or more things. The comparison allows the user to identify and prioritize action items to improve the energy performance for individual buildings. There are two types of performance benchmarking: • Internal • Comparison of energy intensity between similar buildings within a board • Raw data • External • Comparison of energy intensity between similar buildings across the education sector • Weather normalized External Benchmarking

3. External Benchmarking Rationale A top-performing school can be compared to other comparable schools across the province With energy consumption data on over 5,500 building in the sector, the UCD is a valuable resource Selecting specific building characteristics will provide a list of schools located within the province including their weather normalized energy performance which will help determine if the site is a high- or low-energy performer. It will put the site into a broader context.

4. ExternalBenchmarking Why do External Performance Benchmarking? • Allows comparison of a board’s energy performance against other boards • Across the sector • Boards of similar size • Allows comparison of energy performance between sites with similar characteristics • Facility type • Year of construction • Total building area • With or without portables/portapak rooms • Weather normalization (to Toronto Pearson) removes the impact of weather on energy consumption • Particularly important when comparing facilities across a wide climate area (e.g. province-wide)

5. External Benchmarking External Benchmarking - What’s Needed From the UCD Peer Inventory (EDUPI) Comparison set MEC_EDU (this is all sites in the education sector) Normalization Weather normalized - Toronto Pearson Note Select your unit preferences before generating the report For this exercise, ekWh for energy and ft2 for area were used to allow proper comparison

6. External Benchmarking How to Generate the Report Under “Portfolio Tree”, click on “your board’s name” 2. Select “Exports” tab

7. External Benchmarking How to Generate the Report cont’d Select “Peer Inventory (EDUPI)”

8. External Benchmarking How to Generate the Report cont’d Select “Create New” button

9. External Benchmarking • Notes • “MEC_EDU = all sites of the 72 district school boards • “Weather normalized” must be selected when: • comparison is between multiple boards • Strips out the impact of weather on energy consumption ABC How to Generate the Report cont’d Make the following appropriate selections from the menu below:

10. External Benchmarking How to Generate the Report cont’d Complete the “Define filters” section with as many parameters as you require

11. External Benchmarking How to Generate the Report cont’d Sample of “defined” filters

12. External Benchmarking How to Generate the Report cont’d 7. Click “Preview” to determine the number of sites that will be included in the report

13. External Benchmarking How to Generate the Report cont’d Review number of sites Elementary schools should be compared to a group of at least 25 elementary schools Secondary schools should be compared to a group of at least 15 secondary schools If comparison set is too small, expand filters, for example: increase “floor area” increase the period of time for “year of construction” If comparison set is too large, narrow filters, for example: decrease the “floor area” decrease the period of time for “year of construction” 9. Click “Select Output Fields”

14. External Benchmarking How to Generate the Report cont’d Select all the fields that you want generated in the report. Ensure your unit preferences are as desired. 11. Click “Generate the report”

15. External Benchmarking How to Use the Report Identify and delete all the buildings with missing data Building names from other boards will be anonymous

16. External Benchmarking How to Use the Report Step 1 – Insert 5 columns into the report • Total electricity intensity • Total natural gas intensity • Electricity cost per area • Natural gas cost per area • Total cost per area Note • See the rationale for unit preference on slide 5

17. External Benchmarking How to Use the Report Step 2 – Calculate Electricity Intensity for each building • Electricity Intensity (Z) = Total Electricity Consumed (Y)/Total Building Area (X) Y X Z

18. External Benchmarking How to Use the Report Step 2 – Calculate Natural Gas Intensity for each building • Natural Gas Intensity (W) = Total Natural Gas Consumed (V)/Total Building Area (X) X V W

19. External Benchmarking How to Use the Report Step 3 – Calculate the Weighted Average Values Sum the following columns: Total Building Area Total Electricity Consumed Total Natural Gas Consumed For Electricity Intensity Calculated Weighted Average: = Total Electricity Consumed/Total Building Area For Natural Gas Intensity Calculated Weighted Average: = Total Natural Gas Consumed/Total Building Area Note Weighted Average is used to properly account for differences in building areas

20. External Benchmarking How to Use the Report Highlight Electricity and Natural Gas Intensity values above the Calculated Weighted Averages Note Users can sort by category. See Analyzing Energy Costs presentation– Source: UCD Help Desk > TRAINING > 2017 Annual UCD Training Presentations

21. External Benchmarking How to Use the Report Compare your building(s) values with the calculated energy intensity values Compare your building(s) values to the TRCA benchmark of good performing schools:

22. External Benchmarking How to Use the Report Comparing Electricity and Natural Gas Cost Intensities Determine your electricity and natural gas unit cost from your Energy Budget Workbook (Source: Energy Budget Workbook – March 2018 training - located in UCD Help Desk) For this exercise the following values were used: Electricity: $0.17/kWh Natural Gas: $0.25/m3 or $0.024/ekWh

23. External Benchmarking How to Use the Report Step 4a – Calculate Electricity cost for each building U = Electricity Cost Per Building Area ($/ft2 or $/m2) Z = Electricity Intensity (kWh/ft2 or kWh/m2) U = Z * Electricity unit commodity cost ($/kWh) Example: U = 12.94 * 0.17 = $2.20/ft2 U Z

24. How to Use the Report Step 4b – Calculate Natural Gas cost for each building T = Natural Gas Cost per building area ($/ft2 or $/m2) W = Natural Gas Intensity (ekWh/ft2 or ekWh/m2) T = W * Natural Gas unit commodity cost ($/ekWh1) Example: T = 13.42 * 0.024 = $0.32/ft2 1To convert to $/ekWh from $/m3: $/m3/10.32 = $/ekWh To convert to $/ekWh from $/GJ: $/GJ/277.8 = $/ekWh External Benchmarking W T

25. How to Use the Report Step 5 – Calculate Total cost per Area for each building S = Total Cost Per Area ($/ft2 or $/m2) U = Electricity Cost Per Area ($/ft2 or $/m2) T = Natural Gas Cost Per Area ($/ft2 or $/m2) S = U + T Example: S = 2.20 + 0.32 = $2.52/ft2 External Benchmarking U T S

26. How to Use the Report Step 6 – Calculate the Weighted Average Values • Using the Calculated Weighted Average values for Electricity, Natural Gas and Energy Intensity done in the previous steps, calculate: • Electricity Cost Per Area = Electricity Intensity * electricity unit commodity cost ($/kWh) • Natural Gas Cost Per Area = Natural Gas Intensity * natural gas unit commodity cost ($/kWh) • Total Cost Per Area = Electricity Cost Per Area + Natural Gas Cost Per Area External Benchmarking

27. External Benchmarking How to Use the Report Cost Intensity Comparison Highlight Electricity and Natural Gas Cost Per Area values above the Calculated Weighted Averages • Note • For simplicity, only the cost columns are shown

28. External Benchmarking How to Use the Report Compare your building(s) values with the Calculated Average Cost Intensity value Compare your building(s) values to the TRCA benchmark of good performing schools:

29. External Benchmarking Review Your board’s best performing sites compared to the other boards’ schools and the TRCA benchmark Your board’s poor performing sites to determine if there are any obvious reasons for why electricity or natural gas costs are high: HVAC system design to identify possible energy conservation projects Equipment operations to identify improvements Where energy is being used in the building IT equipment Domestic hot water system Daycares How the school building is being used Community use of school Before & after school programs Daycares Energy procurement strategies Does your board participate in an electricity and natural gas procurement consortium?

30. External Benchmarking Questions can be answered via the UCD Helpdesk Email: ucdb@aegent.ca Phone: (416) 622-9449 ext. 115