IPMVP Measurement and Verification
Welcome to the Wattics Energy Management Measurement and Verification Tool user manual. Here you can find all the information needed in order to complete an M&V project, from creating it to exporting the PDF, ready to be shared with your team or client.
Table of contents
- Accessing the M&V Tool
- Creating a new M&V project
- Project Definition
- ECM (Energy Conservation Measure)
- Baseline Period
- Reporting Period
- Routine Adjustments
- Non-Routine Adjustments
- Model
- Savings
- Executive Summary
- Download Report
- Useful Tools
- Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
1 – Accessing the M&V Tool
In order to access the M&V tool, please click on the link below that will bring you to the desired webpage: M&V project tool.
Once you click on the link, you will access this page, and from here you’ll be able to start with the creation of a new M&V project.
2 – Creating a new M&V project
In this user guide, we follow the existing “LED Retrofit Installation” project as an example to help you successfully create your own M&V project.
In order to create a new M&V project, click on the green button located in the top right corner labelled “New M&V Project”. Once clicked, this window will appear:
As the window is suggesting, you should enter the name for your M&V project, and choose the methodology which could be:
- Option B – Retrofit Isolation
All parameters associated with the energy conservation measure must be measured and cannot be estimated. For example, consider the installation of a variable speed drive. The power drawn as well as the hours of operation will have to be measured in order to determine any energy savings.
In other words, you are creating an M&V project which focuses only on some appliances/circuits and not on the entire building’s power consumption. - Option C – Whole Facility
This approach is taken where the energy use of the whole facility or sub facility e.g. extension area needs to be measured. A number of independent variables may need to be taken into account such as heating/cooling degree days or production data. Option C is of great benefit where a number of energy conservation measures have been introduced and the overall picture for the facility is required.
You can also choose whether your team members can access your project by checking the “Visible to other people” box.
To create the project press the “Create” green button.
3 – Project Definition
Once you click on the “Create” button, the first step of the M&V will appear on your screen as in the following image:
In this step of the project, you can enter the cost of the energy conservation measure(s) and use the text box to provide some context and describe the motivation for the project. No need for a summary yet as one can be entered in the last step. In this section, you can add images and format the text as you wish (the formatting will be visible in the final report). You can also create tables, attach files and insert web links.
Once you are done with the first step, click on the second step named “2 – ECM”.
4 – ECM (Energy Conservation Measure)
The ECM is the Energy Conservation Measure. On this page you are supposed to enter all the ECMs that you put in place. Start by clicking on the green button named “Create ECM”.
Once you click on Create ECM, the following pop-up window will appear on your screen:
In here you are supposed to enter details about the ECM(s).
You can either create a new one or link existing ECMs that are already defined in other M&V projects for the same site.
To create a new one, you will have to choose a name for it and select the time frame during which works were carried on.
In the text box, you can provide further details on the Energy Conservation Measures that have been or will be implemented according to their relevance to this project.
Once you are done, click the grey button “Create”.
Repeat this workflow for every ECM that has to do with this project.
To go to the next step click on “3 – Baseline Period”.
5 – Baseline Period
In this section of the M&V you will have to provide the energy data to be used by the tool to create a model of your expected energy usage. To do so, you will have to choose the data source and input starting and ending dates for a period in time that represents the typical energy usage before the implementation of the ECM(s) for the selected project.
The first step is to click on the green button labelled “Link”.
Once you click on it, the menu with all your data points will appear, like in the following image:
Select the data point that you want to base your energy baseline on and click “Link”. Once you linked a data point to the project, you’ll be asked to set a timeframe on the textboxes inside the green rectangle you can see in the image above.
Here you can see how the baseline period page should look like when the energy is linked to the project and the timeframe is defined.
Now that the third step is completed you can move to the fourth step. Click on “4 – Reporting Period” to do so.
6 – Reporting Period
In this step of the M&V, you should enter the timeframe to be used to evaluate the results of the implementation of the ECM(s).
In order to input the dates, click on the two highlighted boxes as in the following picture:
After the timeframe definition the result should look like the following image:
7 – Routine Adjustments
This part of the M&V tool is very useful and powerful. In here, you will have to specify the data to be used by the model to predict consumption.
Our sample M&V project is about LED lights retrofitting in the hospitality sector, so, as you can imagine, all the rooms are powered through the presence of the key. This means that every time the number of guests increases, there’s a good chance the energy consumption related to lighting will go up as well. This might mean that the lamps’ energy consumption and the number of booked rooms are correlated.
In order to validate these assumptions, in this M&V section it is possible to check the correlation between a variable and the energy consumption. Take a look at step No 7.4 in order to learn how to check for correlation.
A good way to decide whether a variable is correlated to your power consumption or not, think about why the energy consumption of a certain appliance increases/decreases.
Let’s take an office building as an example: you can imagine that the lights, printers, computers, and the HVAC are working only (or at least for the most part) during working hours, so using the working timetable as an independent variable could potentially improve the accuracy of the model.
Another common example is related to the use of heat pumps for heating and/or cooling. With those appliances you can consider the outside temperature, heating degree days, cooling degree days and so on as independent variables.
If you don’t have any routine adjustment data within your data points you are probably asking yourself “how do I obtain all the data for the routine adjustments?”
If this is the case, this is addressed in the next few pages.
7.1 Routine Adjustments – HDD & CDD
In order to add an independent variable to your project’s routine adjustments, it must be added as a data point to your dashboard in advance.
The Wattics platform is able to import Heating Degree Days and Cooling Degree Days data automatically. HDD/CDD data points are updated on a daily basis without any intervention.
To create these data points you can either follow this product tour or read the following part of the chapter.
To get these data points added to your site, you have to go to the “Admin” section of your Wattics dashboard and click on “Organizations”
Once in the organizations page, search for the name of the organization where you wish to add this data point and then click on its name to open it.
When you open the organization’s page, select the site where you would like to add the new point to and click on “Add Meter” to proceed.
Once you click on “Add Meter” you should select “Numeric” as the data point type and then choose Heating or Cooling Degree Days from the Template Name drop-down menu.
When a template is chosen, you will be prompted to configure its settings.
Here you can name the meter, select the temperature unit (°F or °C), base temperature for degree days calculation, and the amount of years of data to import so that you have all the historical data required. Once you are done with these, click on “Save”.
Note: This new data point will be added to your Wattics SaaS subscription.
You can follow this procedure for Cooling Degree Days.
Note: In order to have temperature data you need to connect a temperature meter, Wattics only provides average daily temperature values.
It is possible to use other types of data for your routine adjustments. However, in this case, the procedure to import these readings is slightly different. Let us guide you through this process in the next step:
7.2 Routine Adjustments – Data Uploading
In our example, we are using “Booked Rooms Data” as an independent variable that we consider is correlated with energy usage (we will confirm this later on). If you would like to import data, click on “Data” in the top left corner of the Wattics dashboard as shown in the following image.
In this first section of the data uploader you have to choose the user you would like to associate the data to.
The next step is to choose the organization this data belongs to. Once you have done this, click on “Next”.
Now you must choose the site this data is associated with.
Once the User, Organization and Site are selected, you are ready to add a data point. In this specific example the data point is named “Booked Rooms Data”, the Type is “Other” because this data is not coming from an electricity, gas or water meter. If the unit for your adjustment is not listed in the Unit drop-down menu, like in this case, please select const.
For “Booked Rooms Data”, the process sampling rate should be set to 1 day. Please note that you have to adjust the process sampling rate to the frequency of your data.
Example: If your data set contains hourly values, the process sampling rate should be set to 60 minutes.
The next step is about choosing the file from your device and uploading it to our platform. As you can see, we support CSV and Green Button XML files. Click on the desired format and proceed with the upload.
Once your data point has been created, you can go back to the Routine Adjustments section of your M&V project.
7.3 Routine Adjustments – New Independent Variable
Now that the steps 7.1 and/or 7.2 have been completed and all the required data is on the platform, you are ready to create a new independent variable. In order to do so, click on “New Independent Variable” and input a name and description for the independent variable on the pop-up window. Then click on “Create” to save your entries.
Once done, you will have to link the new variable to an existing data point. In order to do so, click on the green button labelled “Link” (1), then locate and select the data point where the data relevant to this project is stored (2) and then click on “Link” (3).
In our example, we created a routine adjustment based on the Booked Rooms Data as shown in the following picture:
Once the Routine Adjustment is created, it is time to check for correlation.
7.4 Routine Adjustments – Correlation Checking
Once your independent variable is created and linked to a data point, you can check its correlation with energy usage. In order to do so, click on correlation as shown in the following image:
As you can see the correlation between the Booked Rooms and energy consumption is 90%. This can be considered a really good correlation factor. R2 above 60% is considered good.
8 – Non-Routine Adjustments
Non-Routine Adjustments are those energy-related factors which are not usually expected to change, for example:
- Facility size
- The design
- Operation of installed equipment
- Number of weekly production shifts
- Type of occupants
These factors must be monitored for change throughout the reporting period. In case one of them changed, this step makes it possible to take this change into consideration. This will result in an improved model.
The next image shows how to create a Non-Routine Adjustment.
Now that the concept is clear, by clicking on “6 – Non-Routine Adjustments” and then on “New Static Factor” you will be able to add, change and manage your adjustments.
As you can see, the process is simple:
- Click on “New Static Factor”
- Provide a name for the adjustment
- Insert the factor that will be added/divided/multiplied or subtracted from the energy consumption.
- Choose if the adjustment should be applied to the whole reporting period or to a specific time windows.
- Describe in detail why this adjustment was necessary. If a specific formula or process was followed to arrive at the adjustment, it should be explained in the area provided.
- Click on “Create”
9 – Model
In this step of the M&V project, you are able to generate the formula that describes your energy usage before the ECM (Baseline period). The purpose of the model is to verify the savings. This is achieved by comparing the model’s prediction and the actual energy consumption in the Reporting period, as shown in the following picture:
From the Model’s page, it is possible to select which routine adjustments to take into account to build the model. It is also possible to choose how the days are grouped. This means that it is possible to choose between:
- One model (All days)
- Two models (Weekends and weekdays)
- Seven models (One for each day of the week)
Our example uses the second option (two models). In order to include/exclude routine adjustments in/from the model, all you need to do is to tick/untick the checkbox next to that particular adjustment.
The following image shows an M&V project with multiple Routine Adjustments. Some of them are being taken into account in the model while some others are not.
Once the model is generated, you can proceed to the 8th step and evaluate your savings.
10 – Savings
This section makes it possible to verify whether the ECM delivered the expected results or not. This is achieved by comparing the metered data and the output from the model during the reporting period. In other words, comparing the metered data with the predicted energy usage if no ECMs were implemented (as predicted by the model). This comparison will indicate if energy savings were achieved or not. It will also make it possible to quantify these savings (if any).
As you can appreciate in the chart and in the summary below the chart, the LED retrofit installation resulted in considerable energy savings as indicated by a payback period equal to 1.49 years and annual savings of $1511.41. The estimated energy usage without any ECM(s) is also displayed above the actual (metered) consumption (both in kWh).
11 – Executive Summary
The executive summary section provides an area where you can describe the whole M&V project: what is encompassed, what was achieved, among others. This section will appear in the first page of the report.
12 – Download Report
The Wattics M&V tool is capable of compiling a project report file. Once you have completed all the sections, you can download this report (as a .pdf) by clicking on the green button under “9 – Executive Summary” as shown in the following picture:
A report has information from all steps of the project.
13 – Useful Tools
1 – Hourly Working timetable – CSV Generator
The support team has created an Excel spreadsheet that can make your life easier when it comes to generating a CSV file with the working timetable in hourly values necessary for your M&V project’s routine adjustments. This user-friendly spreadsheet will generate a CSV file which contains 0s and 1s representing when the company is closed (0) or open (1). The spreadsheet can also take into account the vacation period. It can be downloaded from here . Here’s a step-by-step guide:
1 – CSV File Generation
In the following image, you can see the first tab of the spreadsheet, where all the information should be entered.
In this page you should change the “Working Days” cells with yes/no depending if the company is working or not on that day.
Example: if the company is usually open on Mondays, you should write “yes”. If the company is usually closed on Mondays, then you should write “no”.
In the “Company Timetable” section you are supposed to write the time in hours and minutes at which the operations start.
Note: The spreadsheet considers hourly intervals. This means that periods of one hour are considered from the “starting” time until the specified “finish” time. Example: 6.30 to 18.30.
In the “Starting Date” column you should write the starting date for the CSV file. The spreadsheet is configured to produce two years worth of data.
In the “Vacation” section, you should specify when the vacation period takes place (if applicable).
Note: For the Vacation Finish, you must specify the day when operations restart after the vacation period. In other words, add one day to the last date of the vacation period.
If you don’t want to include a vacation period, the next steps explain how to do so.
2 – Exporting the CSV file:
There are two spreadsheets in the workbook. One of them takes the vacation period into consideration, the other one doesn’t.
- CSV TO EXPORT w vacations – this CSV includes the vacation period
- CSV TO EXPORT without vacations – this CSV doesn’t include the vacation period
Choose the spreadsheet you are interested in. Then go to “File”⇨ “Export” ⇨ “CSV” to save its content to a CSV file.
To upload the CSV file, visit Data import tool
For more info on the data import process, read paragraph 7.2.
If in doubt, get in touch with us at [email protected]
2 – M&V Questionnaire – Let us guide you through the M&V set up
If you need some help in your first attempt at the M&V tool, here is a questionnaire that will help our customer success team guide you through this simple process.
14 – Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
How to add CDD/HDD to your M&V project
This platform tour explains how to add Cooling and Heating degree days to your Wattics dashboard. You can also refer to Chapter 7.1 of this User Manual.
How can I include the working timetable as an independent variable?
If you would like to include the working timetable as a variable in your project, you should jump to “13 – Useful tools” chapter “1 – Hourly Working timetable – CSV Generator”. This chapter explains how to generate a CSV file that represents the working timetable. It also provides all the tools required.
The chart is not showing anything, no lines or data
If this happens, please check the value of the process sampling rate, it must match the frequency of your data. You can confirm this value from Admin > Organisations > Your Organisation > Data Point with the issue.
Problems with the data uploader, an error prevents the process from completing
If you are unable to upload files to the Wattics platform, please check its format. Wattics supports CSV (Comma Separated Values) and Green Button XML files. The system cannot handle Excel or Open Office Calc documents (file extensions: .xls, .xlsx, .ods, .ots, etc..)
Note: If the data in your file is formatted with a thousands separator and/or a decimal separator, please make sure to configure the data import settings accordingly (as shown below).
I followed the instructions in this User Manual but I’m still having issues with the timeframes of the Baseline, ECM/ECMs and Reporting period.
The tool will only work when data is available for all the data points involved. The data from all these data points must cover the whole M&V project timeframe.
Example: Your project goes from 13/02/2019 until 23/05/2019. All the data points taken into consideration by the project (energy and routine adjustments) should have data for this entire period.
Here is an image which summarizes the different periods. As you can see Baseline, ECM and Reporting periods should not overlap each other.
If you’d like to find out more about using the Wattics IPMVP M&V tool for your energy savings projects, fill in your details below to get in touch!
