The Development of a Whole-Building Energy Baseline Model for the Measurement & Verification of a Commercial Building

Abstract

This paper focusses on a whole-building energy baseline model that was developed for an office building in South Africa. The research was driven by the 12L Tax Incentive which was promulgated in December 2013 and will be operational until 1 January 2022. Currently, the 12L Tax incentive awards energyefficient users with a 95 cents tax incentive per kWh of measured and verified savings achieved. These savings are however directly influenced by the level of uncertainty of the baseline model which is governed by the SANS 50010:2011.

The SANS 50010:2011 standard states that uncertainty shall be managed to deliver conservative results in order to guarantee the credibility of the reported energy performance. The uncertainty should be applied to the savings and not the overall energy use. Thus it has a direct effect on the quantity of the savings determined. The aim of the conducted research was to develop a baseline that would report the maximum savings that fall within acceptable uncertainty and confidence levels as required by the standard. A total of six models were developed and evaluated during this research. The results found that the Day-Time-Temperature 24 x 7 x 12 model delivered optimal results with a precision of 8.9% at a 80% confidence level. Compared against the worst performing model, the savings increased by 59,493 kWh and the associated tax incentive more than tripled with an increase of R 67104.