Executives who are responsible for energy management identify smart-building technology as one of the clean-energy technologies they expect to experience the greatest increase in market adoption over the next 10 years. However, just 22 percent of the same executives report that their organization has adopted smart-grid or smart-building technologies in the last 12 months.

Those are among the findings of the 2011 Energy Efficiency Indicator (EEI) survey. Administered by the Johnson Controls Institute for Building Efficiency in partnership with the International Facility Management Association, the Urban Land Institute, and 30 strategic partners around the world, the fifth annual survey polled global executives and building owners responsible for energy management and investment decisions in commercial and public-sector buildings. The survey tracked their priorities, practices, investment plans, and financial evaluation criteria to understand the projects they are implementing, the drivers of action, and the barriers they face.

In 2011, the survey had a record number of respondents: nearly 4,000, representing 24 industry sectors in 13 countries on six continents.

FIGURE 1. Lighting improvements, followed by changes to HVAC and/or controls, led the list of energy-efficiency improvments adopted by survey participants during the last 12 months.

Companies that participated in the EEI survey invested in a variety of smart-building technologies over the past year, including:

• Data systems providing access to electrical metering information, 13 percent.
• Controls programmed for an automated response to signals from utilities, 9 percent.
• Integration of facility systems with other internal software applications, 8 percent.
• Software user interfaces showing price or event information from the utility or grid operator, 8 percent.
• Integration of facility systems with outside data sources, such as weather, 7 percent.

FIGURE 2. Respondents with larger facilities reported having accomplished more energy projects than those with smaller facilities.
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Putting the Data to Use
Survey results indicate organizations that have implemented smart-grid or smart-building technologies are 2.5 times more likely to review data frequently than those that have not. However, the survey also shows that although 43 percent of participants reported they measure and record energy data at least weekly, only 15 percent actually review and analyze that data with the same frequency. Forty-three percent review it monthly (most likely when their utility bills arrive), and another 37 percent admit to reviewing it quarterly or less.

This apparent disparity between the number of organizations that collect data frequently and those that analyze it frequently could be explained by the lack of automated analysis. Until recently, reviewing and analyzing that data has been a human function, requiring someone with the time and analytical skills to identify operating abnormalities, energy inefficiencies, and opportunities for improved building performance. Unfortunately, these operators are few in number and have job responsibilities that leave them little time to perform an analysis that produces actionable information.

As a result, many buildings today underperform—even those that have implemented smart-grid or smart-building technologies. To gain full advantage of data that are collected and stored by smart technology, information must be reviewed and analyzed frequently. It is only through frequent analysis and review of operating data that situations affecting building performance can be detected and corrected.

Fortunately, smart-building technology increasingly enables automatic collection and analysis of data. As a result, organizations that collect data frequently can review it frequently as well.

Many buildings today employ energy-supply and/or peak-demand-management systems, including those adopted by 37 percent of the survey’s respondents. The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission defines demand-response as changes in electric usage by end-use customers from their normal consumption patterns in response to changes in the price of electricity over time or in response to incentive payments designed to induce lower electricity use at times of high wholesale market prices or when system reliability is jeopardized. In essence, demand response allows electricity users—in exchange for financial incentives—to reduce electricity use during times when the grid needs help.

Demand response represents just one example of how smart technology can convert data into actionable information, the result of a continuum in which data are collected, integrated, and analyzed in the context of an entire building, providing insights that lead to automated actions to counteract problems or further optimize building performance. Smart buildings respond to messages from utilities indicating an increase in electricity prices, and action begins. For example, ice made earlier in the day can begin to melt, offsetting energy used by a chiller to provide air conditioning, and common-area lighting can be dimmed. As electricity prices continue to increase throughout the day, the building can take more aggressive actions to reduce demand, including letting temperatures drift within limits, throttling down data-center servers that are performing noncritical work, and sending e-mails instructing employees to unplug laptops, removing them from the building’s electric grid. These and other actions benefit both the building owner by lowering energy costs and the utility by decreasing demands on the grid.