Metering in Federal Buildings

The U.S. Department of Energy is required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to establish guidelines for agencies to meter their federal buildings for energy (electricity, natural gas, and steam) and water use. To help agencies meet their metering requirements, the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) provides guidance, templates, best practices, and more.

The Federal Building Metering Guidance (per 42 USC 8253(e) Metering of Energy Use) November 2014 update replaces the February 2006 guidance. This revision was issued to account for current energy and water metering requirements and to reflect current metering practices within the federal government. Notable updates include:

• Expanding the metering guidance to include energy and water
• Revising the definitions of "appropriate" and "cost effective"
• Including a recommended approach to prioritize the installation of meters 
• Reiterating the requirement to incorporate metered data into agency data tracking systems.

The guidance requires federal agencies to review, revise, and submit to FEMP their metering implementation plans. Each agency’s plan must include a metering implementation plan for each individual subagency (bureau, component, or service) within its jurisdiction.

For related information, see:

• Prioritizing Building Water Meter Applications
• Estimating Methods for Determining End-Use Water Consumption.

Using Metered Data for Energy and Water Evaluations explains the legislative basis for comprehensive energy and water evaluations, describes the steps in the typical evaluation process and connects evaluation steps to graphical analysis techniques and common evaluation questions. The intended audience for this reference document is energy managers and others who are new to using metered data to support evaluations and have limited experience with metered data analysis.

Agencies can use the FEMP Metered Data Analysis Tutorial Workbook to learn about the graphing techniques described in the report by exploring the metered data and calculations behind them. For each graphical analysis technique, the workbook presents a corresponding worksheet with step-by-step instructions on how to generate the graph. Instructions link steps to specific data tables and calculations. Each worksheet also presents an example use case illustrating how an evaluator might use the analysis technique to gain insight into the energy or water performance of facility.

The Energy Data Management System Commercial Product Summary offers a comparative review of commercially available energy data management systems.

This report, coupled with the Federal Metering Data Analysis Needs and Existing Tools, facilitates federal agencies in using meter data to reach their energy savings goals. Energy data management systems include hardware, software, and communication systems to enable the collection, storage, and analysis of metered energy data.

The updated agency metering implementation plan shall consider resources required and prioritize metering implementation efforts for "appropriate" federal buildings over the next five years. Resource limitations may inhibit the installation of advanced meters at every "appropriate" federal building within the five-year planning cycle. Consequently, agencies should provide a path forward for remaining buildings after the initial five years.

Agencies can use the Federal Building Metering Implementation Plan Template to develop their plans.

FEMP's mission is directly related to achieving the requirements set forth in the Energy Policy Acts of 1992 and 2005 and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 as well as with practices that are inherent in the sound management of federal financial and personnel resources.

To that extent, FEMP published Metering Best Practices: A Guide to Achieving Utility Resource Efficiency in March 2015. This document provides energy managers and practitioners with useful information about energy and resource metering, the relevant metering technologies, communications, applications for data, and ideas for developing and implementing effective metering programs.

The learning objectives of this guide are to:

• Highlight the benefits of using metered data to identify opportunities and drive cost-effective energy management and investment practices
• Understand and be able to outline the key elements of a metering plan, including prioritization
• Illustrate ways to use metered data to identify energy and cost saving opportunities
• Achieve a high-level understanding of metering technologies, equipment, and applications
• Describe the methods and approaches for building-level, distribution-level, and end-use metering
• Explain the data communication options for metered data. 

This guide focuses on providing energy, water, and facility managers and practitioners with information that facilitates using metering to achieve potential savings and benefits.