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The use of sub-hourly primary meter data to identify electricity savings in municipal buildings

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Abstract

Sub-hourly electricity consumption data is being routinely collected from non-domestic buildings in European countries, yet there is little published guidance on how to analyse this data. A new analysis technique is described that produces electricity load profile indicators to help identify potential electricity savings from 81 municipal buildings of six different types: commercial and public offices, libraries and museums, sport centres, schools, community centres and care homes/hostels. This approach is different from conventional energy management analysis techniques since it uses total electricity consumption data in half-hourly periods rather than annual or monthly data. The analysis enabled the detection of buildings with consumption profiles that differ significantly from the typical profile for that building type. This provided a systematic and rapid procedure to identify potential energy saving opportunities in multiple buildings. The new approach introduces a standard statistical technique, independent of energy manager judgement, to help identify energy saving opportunities in buildings.

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Acknowledgments

Grateful acknowledgement is given to the funding support from the European Commission's Intelligent Energy Europe programme for the ENERinTOWN, Intelligent Metering and aIM4SMEs projects. Also to ongoing support from Leicester City Council (P. Webber, P.Patel, J.Odell, C.Burt) and from colleagues at De Montfort University (G. Stuart and G. Mill)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Management and Industrial Engineering, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    Vasco Ferreira

  2. Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH, UK

    Paul Fleming

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  1. Vasco Ferreira
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  2. Paul Fleming
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Correspondence to Vasco Ferreira.

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Ferreira, V., Fleming, P. The use of sub-hourly primary meter data to identify electricity savings in municipal buildings. Energy Efficiency 7, 879–889 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-014-9261-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-014-9261-y

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