Markets succeed when relevant information is broadly available and easily acted upon. Data collection, organization, analysis and delivery are actions needed to remove the market barriers to the adoption of energy efficiency in buildings. California’s consumers, building owners, and many existing building professionals all need information on the energy savings expected from efficiency upgrades, and on the relative performance of existing residential and commercial building properties. Financial institutions need to assess investment risks, which is best supported by measured performance data incorporated into probability distributions of cost savings from existing building efficiency improvements.
While individual project data is needed as inputs to the many different market analyses that will support investments in energy efficiency, only aggregated metrics are required to report the results of these analyses. To be useful to many stakeholders, individual project data does not need to include the confidential descriptors that identify specific property addresses or personal data on the project participants. This fact allows California policy makers to cast a broad net to find appropriate sources for building performance data, recognizing that data confidentiality concerns do not need to conflict with the market needs for the data.
There is tremendous value in centralizing all energy performance data into one place, using a common taxonomy and shared infrastructure. All parts of the market should have access to it. Special applications can be built to access and analyze the data to serve these markets. Financial institutions need actuarial data to reduce the risk of uncertain energy efficiency project results. Government agencies need building characteristics, performance, and market size data to shape, defend, and implement policy. Industry decision makers, including consumers, benefit from understanding the performance results of public energy efficiency investments.
Information technology resources are substantially leveraged because the performance data is stored, organized, documented and kept secure in a single information technology
infrastructure, rather than dispersed among an endless number of smaller, disparate database
applications.
An example of an effective data collection and sharing effort is the CSI database, which makes a great deal of solar information available to consumers, businesses and government. When CSI participants apply for incentives with the program, they provide data about their home or business and about the solar system they are installing. The program then chooses among the many application data fields the items expected to be of greatest interest to the public, then ʺcleansʺ the ʺRaw Data Set,ʺ and reports the data on the public CSI website. This database is used by many stakeholders worldwide for reference, reporting, marketing analysis, business planning and many other purposes.
Market Status
To date, California’s building energy performance data is not organized, nor is it made available to the people who need it. An extremely limited portion of all the building characteristics and
market data collected by the CPUC, Energy Commission, and utilities is made available to the public, or put to use meeting the market needs for building energy performance information. The CPUC’s EM&V data, the Energy Commission’s forecasting data, as well as the building specific information collected by utilities in their incentive program implementation processes form a rich set of performance data that has not yet been organized and made accessible to support decision making by consumers, building owners, financial institutions, policy makers, or other market actors. Data collected for singular purposes that is not made available to the market for multiple applications is a lost opportunity and a waste of limited resources.
The Energy Commission, as part of the ARRA collaboration, is in the process of creating a data warehouse that will capture all ‐ingle family project data from ARRA partners including local governments, public and private utilities, and California HERS II providers. The data
warehouse will be a repository for specific project information from such sources as job reporting templates (JRTs), EnergyPro files, Home Performance XML files, and/or additional XML formats. It will also include incentive, financing, and rating information.
The goal is to develop a comprehensive set of data from Energy Upgrade California projects for EM&V purposes, as well as for AB 758 program development. Under ARRA, the US DOE requires the Energy Commission to conduct EM&V and report the results to them. This data warehouse will help the Energy Commission meets its reporting obligation to the US DOE, as well as provide a rich set of performance data for AB 758 program development and
implementation. It is anticipated that more than 4,000 individual project records to be housed in
the warehouse.
The Energy Commission views the Energy Upgrade California program as a pilot program for developing the comprehensive program required by AB 758. The purpose of the Energy
Upgrade program is to make it easier for property owners to get information about making and financing energy efficiency improvements, and to connect customers with participating
contractors, financing options and financial incentives. AB 758 requires the Energy Commission to develop and implement a comprehensive statewide program to achieve greater energy savings in California’s existing residential and nonresidential buildings. The purpose of the AB 758 assessment of Energy Upgrade program is to evaluate the specific questions identified in the bill and use that information to determine the most effective ongoing ways to deliver the components of the comprehensive program statewide into the future. The data collected from Energy Upgrade program will aid the AB 758 assessment.
The Energy Commission has taken great care in the development of the data warehouse and the secure transfer and storage of local and utility data. The data warehouse will maintain data integrity and confidentiality requirements as required by the Energy Commission and utilities. Project data from all sources will be married by project so that the warehouse includes one detailed project record per Energy Upgrade California project. This allows users to review, study, and understand all the benefits the property received through the Energy Upgrade program and analyze the data pre‐ and post‐upgrade. Access to the data will vary depending on need; most data will be viewable only through the Energy Upgrade California Web portal project‐reporting user interface, which will make standardized project data reports available
from the data warehouse taking into consideration the confidentiality of the data. Data will be generally viewable in redacted or aggregated form.
Additionally, the CPUC has directed the IOUs to investigate development of a data warehouse to collect financing related project performance and repayment data which could potentially assist in evaluating the risk of energy loans153. There is more about this data collection effort in chapter 2. While this effort is focused on information most relevant to the financing sector, this database could be developed in concert or coordination with the Energy Commission data warehouse to consolidate the most useful information related to a project under one house. The US DOE has begun an effort to establish a clearinghouse of building energy performance data that is organized using a common data taxonomy. The vision for DOE’s Building
Performance Database (DBPD) is to provide the database infrastructure so that other
government agencies and private organizations can contribute non‐confidential data, as well as leverage the DBPD to meet market data needs:
The DOE Buildings Performance Database is a decision‐support platform, comprised of a
database and data analysis tools, that enables engineering and financial practitioners to evaluate
energy efficiency products and services in commercial and residential buildings. The initial tool
set includes an energy savings forecasting tool that uses an actuarial based methodology to
develop energy savings distributions and a financial tool that forecasts cash flows from these
energy savings distributions.
Designed to address existing market barriers, the DOE Buildings Performance Database enables
more precise analysis of the risks and benefits of energy efficiency projects, helping individuals
make informed decisions on completing and investing in these improvements. [DOE_BPD_Fact
Sheet 120111.pdf]
The CPUC’s Guidance Decision directs the utilities to find ways to protect customer privacy while still sharing individual efficiency project data with financial entities and other stakeholders (5.3.3.5. Financing Database Development and Data Sharing, pg. 133). The
Guidance Decision also directs the utilities to explore possible ties to DOE’s national Building Performance Database (pg. 134), and to propose methods by which more detailed performance and usage data can be measured, stored, and used, for implementation and/or piloting during the 2013‐2014 transition period (pg. 223). The utilities are risk averse when it comes to divulging their customer’s energy project and consumption information. Special care must be made when crafting easy‐to‐use and understand customer release tools, especially when the utilities are moving to all electronic application processes.
Because the market will benefit from information derived from measured performance data, it is important for project data collected to include energy bills and a general identification of location. Unless customers have given prior release, this data is confidential and cannot be shared. The Energy Commission, the CPUC and California utilities must work toward a
systematic process of gaining this required customer release, consistently across all programs, in
a manner that is not burdensome for the customer, and protects their personal and business needs for confidentiality. California has an opportunity, and a responsibility, to organize and share building energy performance information to meet the market needs for information. California is quite capable of addressing all relevant data confidentiality concerns by entering into non‐disclosure agreements with utilities to only release redacted or combined data or building an easy‐to‐use electronic customer release forms educating customers about the need and use of their energy data. Absent a California energy efficiency database, we all can benefit
from the federal government’s building performance database infrastructure development and
support.
It is the hope of the Energy Commission that all parties will see the benefits and value of the
Energy Upgrade California data warehouse and will work toward expanding its development