Assessing EMIS Benefits: A new field evaluation protocol offers rigor and flexibility

Energy management and information systems (EMIS) are combined hardware and software products that comprise a
broad range of analytics and/or optimal control functionality to manage commercial building energy use, covering
three main types of functionality: energy information system focus on interval meter data analysis, fault detection
and diagnostics focus on system or equipment-level data analysis, and automated system optimization focus on
optimal control. More and more researchers and building owners seek to field test and pilot EMIS. However, the
studies were conducted differently with disparate design and metrics. The field validation of EMIS also facing the
challenges of qualification of non-energy benefits and linkage between information analysis and energy savings.
In response, this paper presents a standardized field testing protocol for EMIS assessment based on literature review
and stakeholder interviews. The protocol provides a standardized approach for assessing EMIS’ energy and non-
energy benefits. It balances rigor and flexibility by specifying a set of required and optional evaluation metrics that
can be tailored to the needs of technology evaluators, including energy savings, demand reduction, cost
effectiveness, operation and maintenance improvement, capability to enable efficiency, etc. With this protocol,
consistent evaluation results can be generalized across multiple studies to support the adoption and further
advancement of EMIS.