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Forum Post: IDC Smart Buildings Maturity Models – A New Framework for Exploring the Benefits of Strategic Energy Management

Casey Talon — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:29:00 GMT

IDC Energy Insights published two complimentary Smart Building Maturity Model reports today, for vendors and for end users engaged in, or exploring new opportunities in this rapidly growing marketplace. IDC Energy Insights’ goal with the maturity model is to provide a framework for understanding the ecosystem of Smart Building solutions and a tool for communicating the benefits of investing in increasingly sophisticated energy management technologies.

The market for Smart Buildings’ solutions has emerged and continues to grow rapidly due to the significant impact the energy costs associated with operating facilities have on businesses’ bottom lines. From the end user perspective, the universal challenge of managing energy costs translates to very different opportunities for investment based on building or portfolio size, annual energy demand, local energy rates, facility infrastructure and strategic business drivers. The Smart Buildings Maturity Model is a tool to help end users assess the sophistication of the energy management capabilities in their facilities and establish a set of priorities for investments. The path toward becoming a Smart Building will most commonly be defined by iterative advancements in energy management; and the investments that support these improvements must meet the financial and business requirements of the particular set of decision-makers exploring the opportunity. The Market Maturity Model provides these decision-makers with a framework for analyzing their investments opportunities.

From the vendor perspective, the Smart Buildings market represents significant growth opportunity for three main segments: information technology, building automation, and specialty energy management technology vendors. The Smart Buildings Maturity Model will help vendors structure customer outreach to effectively communicate investment benefits. In addition, the model will help vendors review the competitive landscape, and identify potential partnerships to engage early adopters in the market to grow market share.

IDC Energy Insights defines the Smart Buildings’ market in six technology verticals:

heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC),

lighting,

plug loads,

fire & security,

distributed energy resources,

analytics & data management.

Furthermore, we have defined a five point scale of maturity for each technology segment in terms of functionality. The cornerstone of the Maturity Model is the idea that a truly optimized Smart Building will have fully integrated control and automation systems providing unprecedented visibility into facility operations for real-time adaptation to external signals and internally generated policies. The Smart Building will manage energy and operational costs and at the same time support broader strategic business goals such as sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

Commercial buildings consume around 20% of all energy consumed in the US. As we look to new opportunities to manage our national energy demands and develop more responsible energy policies, energy efficiency has an important role to play. The buildings segment cannot be overlooked, and Smart Buildings’ solutions represent the most innovative and comprehensive energy efficiency solutions for this market. The Market Maturity Model provides a framework for exploring investment in Smart Building solutions that will support broad adoption of energy efficiency technologies in the commercial and industrial building sector.

This post originally appeared on IDC Energy Insights' Clean Energy Community:idc-insights-community.com/.../summary

Find more information about these reports here: www.idc-ei.com/getdoc.jsp

Blog: cnt459

Edwin Jones — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:01:00 GMT

Blog Post: How to Avoid Missing BACnet Opportunities - Facilities Management BOM Feature

Articles — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

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Blog Post: Future-proofing a BACnet System - Facilities Management BOM Feature

Articles — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

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Blog Post: Getting the Benefits of BACnet - Facilities Management BOM Feature

Articles — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

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Blog Post: The Facility Manager's Role in Planning BACnet - Facilities Management BOM Feature

Articles — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

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Blog: rsen2012

rsen2012 — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 07:17:00 GMT

Blog Post: “You don’t get rebates just for waking up in the morning…”

RealWinWin — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:42:00 GMT

As obvious as the above statement seems, you might be surprised to discover it’s not as easy as it seems to capture a rebate to offset the upfront costs of your energy efficient investments. If you are thinking about energy efficiency and want to make sure you can take advantage of utility funding, you should be considering the following:

• A high efficiency label doesn’t always mean rebate eligibility

Program requirements vary from utility program to utility program and the bar rises with each program year. HVAC systems must meet high EER or SEER efficiency ratings, LED lamps must be listed Energy Star or Design Lights Consortium approved lists and Kitchen equipment must be Energy Star.

• Installing qualifying equipment only gets you to first base:

Rebate program requirements are sometimes very simple; but just as often they are quite onerous and can be very disruptive to your project schedule if you don’t anticipate them and accommodate them.

For example, many projects, including most lighting projects, will require detailed submission of pre-existing conditions – audits with counts and equipment descriptions allowing the utility to calculate the energy demand before and after your upgrade. They will also require a pre-inspection before the work is started so the utility can verify the details of your submission. All of this takes time – sometimes a couple of months of advance planning and document submission are critical. Failing to get pre-approval will disqualify your eligible investment from receiving its rebate.

• The devil is in the details:

There can be a lot of documentation requirements – invoices marked paid detailing make and model numbers of all equipment, separate labor invoices, W-9, spec sheets for new equipment, copy of a recent utility bill; even a certificate from the state taxing authorities saying you don’t owe any back taxes. Document submission can be required as soon as 60 days after invoice date and invoice dates can’t precede preapproval dates.

It’s a lot to keep track of if you are only doing one project; it can be a logistical nightmare if you are doing a multi-site project spanning many utilities over a fixed time or budget period. Utilities tend to be very parochial in their program design and administration which makes it very difficult to coordinate all these requirements in multiple jurisdictions and still have an install schedule which makes sense from your business perspective.

• Sometimes it pays to get some expert help:

If you are embarking on an initiative which will involve funding from multiple utilities, you better think about outsourcing with a rebate specialist. Consult with them up front, even before projects have been approved while you are negotiating terms with your vendors. Doing so will ensure your choosing qualifying equipment and build into the project plan the rebate timing and document requirements. In a large scale project you don’t have to get disqualified from too many sites, before the fee you are paying the expert is more than covered.

Also, make sure your expert is really an expert. Your equipment vendors will have knowledge of these programs, but do they have the time or persistence to chase every dollar? Ask for a detailed estimate of rebate potential for each site before you get started so you have something to measure success against.

So, yes there is widespread opportunity across the US and Canada to capture rebates and improve your ROI’s for energy efficiency investments. But, actually getting the checks into your hands takes attention and organization -- definitely a lot more than just waking up in the morning…

Blog Post: Sustainable Roofing: Ensuring Long Term Performance - Facility Management Roofing Feature

Articles — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

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Blog Post: Sustainable Roofing: Durability - Facility Management Roofing Feature

Articles — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

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Blog Post: Sustainable Roofing: Material Management - Facility Management Roofing Feature

Articles — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

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Blog Post: Ensuring Long Term Sustainable Roofing Performance - Facility Management Roofing Feature

Articles — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

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Blog Post: Sustainable Durable Roofing - Facility Management Roofing Feature

Articles — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

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Blog Post: Ensuring Long Term Sustainable Roofing Performance

Articles — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

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Blog Post: Sustainable Roofing: Material Management

Articles — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

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Blog Post: Sustainable Durable Roofing

Articles — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

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Blog Post: Seismic Readiness an Important Issue for Data Centers - Facilities Management Data Centers Feature

Articles — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

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Blog Post: Testing Options for Data Center Seismic Compliance - Facilities Management Data Centers Feature

Articles — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

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Blog: David L Clark

David L Clark — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:35:00 GMT

Blog: lawenv1

lawenv1 — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:12:00 GMT