DR and EE Standards for SCE Buildings

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1 Design & Engineering Services DR and EE Standards for SCE Buildings Prepared by: Design & Engineering Services Customer Service Business Unit Southern California Edison December 2011

2 Acknowledgements Southern California Edison s (SCE s) Design & Engineering Services (DES) group is responsible for this project in collaboration with the Tariff Program & Services (TP&S) group. It was developed as part of SCE s Demand Response, Emerging Markets and Technology program under internal project number. DES project manager Devin Rauss conducted this project with overall guidance and management from Carlos Haiad of DES and Carl Besaw of TP&S. For more information on this project, contact devin.rauss@sce.com. Disclaimer This report was prepared by Southern California Edison (SCE) and funded by California utility customers under the auspices of the California Public Utilities Commission. Reproduction or distribution of the whole or any part of the contents of this document without the express written permission of SCE is prohibited. This work was performed with reasonable care and in accordance with professional standards. However, neither SCE nor any entity performing the work pursuant to SCE s authority make any warranty or representation, expressed or implied, with regard to this report, the merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose of the results of the work, or any analyses, or conclusions contained in this report. The results reflected in the work are generally representative of operating conditions; however, the results in any other situation may vary depending upon particular operating conditions. Southern California Edison

3 DR ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ARRA Auto-DR CR DES DR EE IDSM LEED SCE USGBC American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Automated Demand Response Corporate Resources Design and Engineering Services Demand Response Energy Efficiency Integrated Demand Side Management Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Southern California Edison United States Green Building Council Southern California Edison Page i

4 DR TABLES Table 1. SCE s Building Portfolio... 6 Southern California Edison Page ii

5 DR CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 INTRODUCTION 2 BACKGROUND 3 General Office Alhambra Data Center... 4 General Office EFFORTS TO DATE 4 NEXT STEPS 6 APPENDIX A 7 REFERENCES 14 Southern California Edison Page iii

6 DR EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Southern California Edison (SCE) has significant financial means to deliver Energy Efficiency (EE) and Demand Response (DR) to its customers, and is one of the leading utilities in delivering these programs. SCE has a tremendous opportunity to leverage its own facilities as examples of how customers can incorporate EE and DR into high performance buildings, something SCE already encourages customers to do through incentive programs, and its marketing, education, and outreach efforts. This project set out to develop building standards for SCE s facilities which would ensure the inclusion of cost effective EE and DR measures and strategies. The goal was to identify and engage stakeholders, develop methodology, and ultimately develop recommended packages. However, due to time restrictions, the stakeholder engagement piece was not completed; as a result, efforts were focused on understanding the portfolio of buildings SCE maintains and the current processes used by the Corporate Resources organization. One key development during this project was the establishment of goals for new and existing buildings to achieve LEED certifications of Gold and Silver, respectively. The LEED system awards credits for various categories, including Energy and Atmosphere, which includes EE and more recently DR. This system and the goals established by SCE can play a key role in the establishment of EE and DR standards for SCE s buildings. This report provides the impetus for the project by citing various examples where opportunities were not fully realized, outlines efforts completed to date, and makes recommendations for next steps. The recommended next steps hinge upon obtaining senior level management buy-in, then introducing steps into the existing processes to maximize EE and DR measures. Southern California Edison Page 1

7 INTRODUCTION Southern California Edison (SCE) currently maintains a portfolio of 226 non-electric (i.e. buildings not related to the transmission and distribution of electricity) buildings on 80 sites, comprising 6.38 million square feet of floor space. Many of these buildings were built prior to the introduction of building energy Codes and Standards, and the more recent green initiatives, with the average portfolio age being 34 years. Recently, the company has established a goal for all newly constructed buildings to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certifications, and a goal for all retrofit buildings to achieve LEED Silver certifications. LEED is a green building rating system which emphasizes both environmental responsibility and energy consciousness. Achieving a designated certification level requires obtaining points in the various categories; Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Innovation in Design. Although each category has some pre-requisites, which much be achieved for the project to be considered for LEED certification, there is no requirement to maximize opportunities associated with energy efficiency (EE), or more recently demand response (DR). SCE is one of the leading utilities in the country for delivering EE and DR programs to its customers, and the identification of LEED certification for our buildings is an important first step in walking the talk. However, there is a need to further these efforts by maximizing the participation in the Energy and Atmosphere category as it relates to EE and DR, or when combined Integrated Demand Side Management (IDSM). This report documents the impetus for creating this project, efforts performed to date, and recommended next steps to achieve this stated goal. Southern California Edison Page 2

8 BACKGROUND SCE manages a portfolio of EE programs with a total, 3-year, budget of over $1.2 Billion. Additionally, SCE recently filed a request for the next DR cycle at a budget of roughly $230 Million i. These substantial funding levels are provided to SCE to cost-effectively deliver energy and demand savings to our customers, in an effort to strengthen California s energy and environmental future. A significant amount of the budget ultimately makes its way to the customers in the forms of education and outreach, and incentive payments, whether it is directly to the customer or through more creative payment mechanisms. Yet, a vital component of SCE s role in ensuring the state s energy future is to market EE and DR, driving up customer demand for these activities. SCE maintains a portfolio of 226 non-electric (i.e. buildings not related to the transmission and distribution of electricity) buildings, which our customers frequently visit, or at a minimum serve as visual reminders of SCE s presence. These buildings provide an opportunity to showcase SCE s commitment to California s future and the role that EE and DR will play. SCE incents its customers to improve the performance of their buildings, but despite the absence of financial incentives, great value would be provided to SCE by using its own buildings to showcase IDSM approaches to improved building performance. SCE s Design and Engineering Services (DES) department houses a wealth of knowledge on high performance buildings, and as such is often engaged when SCE, or its customers, require assistance in achieving desired performance goals. Recent examples where DES was asked to participate in SCE building projects include; renovating General Office 5 prior to occupancy, providing input on the design of the Alhambra data center still in development, and retrofitting the lighting system in General Office 2. Each of these activities provided SCE with opportunities to influence the buildings performance. A brief description of each project follows. GENERAL OFFICE 5 SCE purchased an office building down the street from its existing General Offices, with the intent to move the Customer Programs and Services organization into the building. DES was asked to provide guidance during the renovation of this building. The collective team of SCE and external consultants successfully renovated this building to achieve a LEED certification of Gold, exceeding the stated goal for retrofitting buildings, and praises of many. However, many recommendations that would have made the building even more efficient and a better showcase did not make it into the final design. DES s expertise on controls, lighting systems, and DR were utilized in the project development, but were ultimately not included. DES has successfully run numerous Office of the Future projects, achieving 25% savings in overall building energy use by simply renovating the lighting systems to more efficient systems, with greater control, including DR capabilities. DES provided recommendations commensurate with its experience in these projects which did not get incorporated, continuously dimmable controls for the lighting systems were not included in the final project. Similarly, advanced digital controls for the i At the point of writing this document, the DR filing had not been approved. The Proposed Decision issued by the California Public Utilities Commission authorized roughly $185 Million. Southern California Edison Page 3

9 HVAC system were not installed. In both cases, understandably, the controls were selected to mimic those in place at the other General Offices to maintain consistency in building operation. However, these buildings were built in the 70 s and 80 s and are not the best example to follow, particularly when messaging to the customer is considered. The choice to conform to older buildings in our portfolio eliminated the ability to respond to DR events with our lighting system, perform global temperature resets (a viable DR strategy), and overall resulted in less efficient operation of these systems. These are measures which SCE routinely provides incentives to our customers for implementing, but ones that we will not be able to showcase at our latest office. ALHAMBRA DATA CENTER In the summer of 2009, DES was engaged to assist in the development of a proposal to receive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding to enhance the existing plans for the new Alhambra data center. The effort undertaken identified a number of efficient, cutting edge technologies which the data center could showcase, the vision being that the data center could serve as an education and training center for Information Technology professionals. Unfortunately, SCE was not successful in its proposal and did not receive the additional ARRA funding. The data center is still under construction, but the vision associated with the ARRA funding is no longer present. The data center, as currently planned, will be a very efficient data center, utilizing some of the best practices and technologies currently available. Yet, there was an opportunity missed to showcase some of the more cutting edge practices and technologies. For example in-rack liquid cooling and an innovative control strategy were options presented. Data centers consume a tremendous amount of energy, a 2007 study 1 found that data centers account for 1.2% of national electricity consumption, with the number expected to double by These figures indicate the opportunities associated with saving energy and demand in these buildings. Opportunities for DR have been identified for data centers, but given customer concerns over reliability, there have not been any demonstrations of the proposed strategies. SCE s data center could have showcased the benefits of DR strategies and advanced EE measures, while proving that reliability was not impacted. GENERAL OFFICE 2 DES was brought into a project involving retrofitting the lighting systems at SCE s General Office 2. A consultant had provided a recommendation for the lighting system and design, which was offered to DES for their review. DES s review indicated that there was room for improvement in terms of the physical lighting system lay out, increased lamp efficiency, and more intelligent controls, including DR capability. The recommendations made by DES were in line with the strategies proven in the Office of the Future projects. Again, the recommendations made were not implemented, leaving opportunities to showcase the best practices on the table. The lighting system installed is an efficient system, but it does stop short of being cutting edge and having the secondary benefit of a training tool. EFFORTS TO DATE Based upon the experiences of the three projects discussed, DES initiated this project to develop standards for SCE buildings to ensure we maintain a portfolio of high performance Southern California Edison Page 4

10 buildings which emphasize the use of cost effective EE and DR measures and strategies. A detailed project implementation plan was created, outlining the following steps for this project: Project Management Identify key stakeholders Engage Corporate Resources for assistance in project Identify existing process for constructing/renovating SCE buildings Identify SCE buildings Develop methodology to value DR/EE in SCE planning process Develop case study for SCE building(s), identifying measures Propose measures to include in building standard Write final report A key step not identified in the implementation plan was to obtain senior level buy-in for the concept at the start of the project. Unfortunately, a firm commitment was never made. Absent this, the project was not able to deliver on all the items of the implementation plan. The effort was modified to focus on engaging Corporate Resources (CR) to identify stakeholders, existing processes, and SCE buildings. The remaining tasks are anticipated to be carried out in a phase 2 of the project, once the requisite commitments are made. As noted, SCE has established goals for new buildings to achieve LEED Gold certification and existing buildings, when retrofitted, to achieve LEED Silver certification. It is important to note a significant effort undertaken by SCE in conjunction with the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), the organization who develops and maintains the LEED rating system. SCE has worked extensively with the USGBC to develop and implement a credit for DR capabilities under the Energy and Atmosphere category. Buildings which install technologies to be Automated DR (Auto-DR) capable, and who participate in a qualifying DR program, can receive a credit towards LEED certification. With the recent introduction of credits for DR, the vision for this project expanded upon SCE s existing goals for LEED credits, by maximizing the DR and EE credits. The construction and renovation of buildings is managed by the CR organization, typically utilizing external design and construction firms, but occasionally reaching out to internal subject matter experts within the DES and New Construction Services groups. Thus engagement of senior management within the CR organization is vital to accomplishing the objectives of this project. Although communications were not made with senior management, utilizing existing relationships, discussions were held between DES and some employees within the CR organization. As a result of these conversations, DES was able to obtain information on the number and types of buildings SCE currently has, as well as the process diagrams for CR activities. The number and type of buildings is detailed in Table 1. The processes CR utilizes are included in Appendix A. Southern California Edison Page 5

11 TABLE 1. SCE S BUILDING PORTFOLIO BUILDING TYPE NUMBER OF BUILDINGS Headquarters 19 Office 14 Telephone Center 2 Computing Center 3 Grid Management/Control Center 4 Service Center 119 Specialty Sites 60 Warehouse 4 Total 226 NEXT STEPS The opportunity to ensure that SCE s buildings stand as testaments to SCE s commitment to California s energy and environmental future is not one that should be missed. The development of standards for SCE s buildings would accomplish this, and therefore it is recommended that this project be continued into a second phase to be carried out in The remaining steps identified in the original project implementation plan remain viable tasks to be completed in the development of SCE building standards. However, as noted the single greatest task will be obtaining senior management buy-in of the concept. To achieve this, it is recommended that a presentation is delivered to the appropriate senior management team, consisting of various members of Power Delivery Services management team, including CR, Business Customer Division, and Tariffs Programs, and Services. The presentation given would emphasize the need for these standards, based upon the examples detailed in this report, and outline the detailed project plan to accomplish the tasks. Upon obtaining the backing of senior management, resources should be committed to achieving the tasks identified in the original implementation plan. From the efforts to date, it is clear that there is room in the existing processes to introduce additional technical perspectives (Phase 1 Planning, Phase 3- Preliminary Design, and Phase 4 Design Development) to ensure building performance is maximized. Finally, given the construct of the LEED system and the SCE goals, there exists a framework to guide the efforts in maximizing building performance in terms of IDSM. Southern California Edison Page 6

12 APPENDIX A Southern California Edison Page 7

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19 REFERENCES 1 Koomey, Jonathan G. (February 15, 2007), "Estimating Total Power Consumption by Servers in the U.S. and the World". Final Report, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Southern California Edison Page 14