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ICF combines its expertise in energy policy, building
science, and industry knowledge with its unique analytical
capabilities to help clients successfully develop policies
and programs. ICF has extensive experience assessing
energy performance and savings for technologies and
buildings. This experience ranges from providing simple
assessments, such as spreadsheet calculations, to very
detailed energy modeling simulations for the residential,
commercial, and industrial buildings sectors. ICF also
has extensive experience in creating sophisticated
and easy to use software tools for clients to predict
the energy and demand savings potential of their programs.
Building energy analysis can help answer the following:
- What level of efficiency should be promoted to
maximize the impacts of voluntary programs?
- What is the short-term and long-term potential
for energy and demand savings within a defined market
(e.g, residential, commercial, or industrial sector
within a service territory, state, or country)?
- What combination of upgrades can most cost effectively
meet a predetermined savings target?
- How can the impacts of occupant behavior on consumption
be quantified and managed?
Accurately assessing building energy consumption and
savings potential is challenging because buildings
are complex systems defined by the way in which they
are designed, constructed, and operated. Yet doing
so creates a foundation for making sound policy decisions.
Building energy analysis can quantify the cost and
savings potential of technologies and practices in
the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors,
helping to prioritize investment decisions.
ICF International’s experts understand the challenges
of accurately assessing building energy consumption
and designing effective energy policy. ICF International
works with individual builders, developers, property
owners, utilities, state, and federal agencies and
the private sector to develop, analyze, and implement
strategies for a highly competitive and rapidly changing
marketplace. We support energy-efficiency initiatives
with a broad range of services and expertise, including
the following:
Key to these capabilities is ICF’s proprietary
energy simulation and analysis tool, the Building
Energy Analysis Console, Beacon™.
Energy Analytics Models &Tools
Beacon™
Key to ICF’s building energy analytics capabilities
is the proprietary energy simulation and analysis tool,
the Building Energy Analysis Console, Beacon™.
Developed over the past l5 years, Beacon is an energy
simulation tool based on DOE-2 which is the most widely
used and accepted computer software model for estimating
building energy performance. Beacon is capable of modeling
a wide range of residential and commercial building
types to determine the impact of occupant behavior,
building characteristics, or external influences such
as weather conditions and utility costs.
Beacon is capable of modeling individual buildings
as well as conducting parametric analyses. For any
given building, Beacon can estimate consumption and
demand for every hour in the year. In addition, Beacon
is optimized for policy level analysis. It can efficiently
handle multitudes of parametric runs. For example,
ICF completed an analysis that included the evaluation
of more than 1.5 million housing configurations generated
over a two-week period. This detailed yet efficient
capability provides unparalleled resolution to make
informed programmatic and policy decisions.
Energy Efficiency Potential Model (EEPM)
ICF International actively develops and maintains
a sophisticated measure-based Energy Efficiency Potential
Model (EEPM) that projects the technical, economic,
and achievable potential of a wide range of gas and
electric efficiency upgrades under several market intervention
scenarios. Results of the model are used to design
portfolios of energy efficiency and demand response
programs for utilities, as inputs for integrated resource
planning, and in models for greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction
strategies.
EEPM utilizes several types of input data to project
this potential:
- Baseline load forecasts segmented by sector, sub-sector
(i.e., building type or SIC/NAICS code), end use,
and technology type
- Savings and cost information for demand-side efficiency
technologies
- Retail and wholesale energy cost forecasts
- Saturation of efficient end-use equipment already
installed, and penetration of high-efficiency equipment
in current equipment sales
The outputs include extensive data on the sectors,
markets, building types, industries, end uses, and
measures that promise the greatest opportunities for
energy efficiency improvements. In addition, EEPM projects
annual equipment, administrative, and monetary incentive
costs required to purchase efficient equipment and
to finance programs to stimulate the purchase of that
equipment. It also produces custom load shapes for
each program that can be used for integrated resource
planning models.
Selected Projects
Building Energy Solutions Calculator (BESC),
Owens Corning. ICF International developed
a software-based tool for Owens Corning that assists
builders in determining how to comply with the new home
energy efficiency tax credits in the 2005 Energy
Policy Act. While the tool has an incredibly
simple interface, it is based on the robust DOE-2
hourly simulation program. It offers two unique features:
a tiered approach and a cost optimization algorithm.
The tiered approach allows users
to enter as little as three pieces of information
in the first level and a more complete description
of current builder practices in the third level.
The cost optimization algorithm assesses
hundreds of thousands of energy efficiency upgrades
for a particular combination of architectural characteristics
and locations and selects a combination of upgrades
that result in the most cost-effective way to achieve
the required 50 percent savings in heating and cooling
energy compared to the 2004 IECC. The BESC has been
certified through the stringent guidelines set by
the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET)
and adopted by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service
(IRS). This software program has received national
attention among the building community via an article
in Builder magazine and the program’s
debut at the 2006 Green Build Convention in Atlanta.
Predictive Energy and Demand Savings Tool,
Centerpoint, Entergy, Oncor. ICF International
has developed Predictive Savings Tools for use with
the ENERGY STAR Homes and AC Distributor Market Transformation
Programs in Texas. These tools have been developed
since 2001 and allow the user to estimate peak demand
and annual energy savings of homes submitted to the
program using limited information such as the size
of the home and the Home Energy Rating System (HERS)
rating. These tools have been used to satisfy Public
Utility Commissions audit process for estimating
program energy and demand savings in Texas.
Demand Side Management (DSM) Program Filing,
Potomac Energy Power Company (PEPCO). ICF
International assisted PEPCO, a utility servicing
the Mid-Atlantic region, with the filing of three-year
DSM implementation plans for two different service
territories. Assistance included characterizing the
energy and cost savings of individual residential
technologies, screening the measures for cost effectiveness,
bundling the passing measures into utility-level
programs, estimating achievable annual market penetration,
determining program-level energy and demand impacts,
and developing detailed implementation budgets.
Demand Side Management Potential Study, Dominion
Virginia Power. ICF International estimated
achievable DSM savings potential over a ten-year
planning horizon for Dominion and surrounding service
territories in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan
region. The analysis encompassed both the residential
and commercial sectors, including ten subsectors,
and both new and existing construction. The steps
included characterizing dozens of residential and
commercial technologies for their cost, energy, and
demand impacts; screening the measures for cost-effectiveness;
bundling the passing measures into utility-level
programs; and estimating achievable annual market
penetration over the planning horizon. Characterization
of the measures included extensive use of DOE-2 building
energy simulation software that provides results
for every hour of the year.
Demand Side Management Baseline and Market
Potential Study, Arizona Public Service Company. ICF
performed a comprehensive assessment of current energy
efficiency practices in the Arizona Public Service
territory, including seven different surveys of various
residential, commercial, and industrial customer
groups and trade allies, as well as site inspections
and testing of new and existing residential homes.
ICF used DOE2.1 to perform more than 600,000 individual
simulations of building performance under various
conditions, and used its Energy
Efficiency Potential Model (EEPM) to forecast
market adoption of both baseline and energy efficient
technologies, and to assess the technical, economic,
and market potential for more than 200 individual
energy efficient technologies. ICF supported its
analysis before regulators and a collaborative advisory
committee.
Estimating the Potential for Energy Efficiency
in Wisconsin. ICF International developed
estimates of the technical, economic, and achievable
potential for energy efficiency in the service territories
of Wisconsin Electric and Wisconsin Public Service.
The estimates were required as elements of the State
of Wisconsin’s power plant certification process.
ICF International developed a process-based energy
accounting model that tracks energy using stock in
the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors,
and simulates the adoption of energy efficient technologies
and practices over time. The model produces estimates
of potential by end use and sector, and includes
estimates of the costs of achieving different levels
of energy efficiency potential. In the Wisconsin
Electric and Wisconsin Public Service cases, ICF
International converted annual estimated savings
into hourly load shapes that were compatible with
the Electric Generation Expansion Analysis System
(EGEAS) capacity expansion model used by the companies.
ICF International also drafted written testimony
based on its analysis and served as an expert witness
in the certification proceedings.
Building Design Assistance, CVS. ICF
International provided building energy analyses for
CVS drugstores. In-depth energy analyses were performed
using the computer simulation tool DOE-2. Two prototype
buildings were modeled in six cities to determine end-use
loads and areas for targeting energy efficiency upgrades.
Two levels of energy efficiency upgrades were modeled—typical
technology upgrades and cutting-edge technology upgrades.
Economic analyses were performed for each of the packages,
and a report summarizing the recommendations was prepared.
LEED Analysis for the Blue Ridge Center for
Environmental Stewardship, Blue Ridge Center. ICF
International performed the energy component of a
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
analysis for the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental
Stewardship. Efforts involved modeling the building
in DOE-2 to compare the energy efficiency of the
building design to American Society of Heating, Refrigerating
and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard
90.1-1999. Some of the unique characteristics of
the building include geothermal heat pumps, photovoltaics,
electric hot-water heater with a de-superheater,
energy recovery ventilation, day lighting, structural
insulated panels (SIPs) for walls and roof, and a
passive solar design.
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