FirstFuel Uses Advanced Meter Data Analytics to Scale Up Energy Improvement Efforts in District of Columbia
LEXINGTON, Mass. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — October 16, 2013 — FirstFuel Software, the trusted source for energy use intelligence, today announced its Remote Building Analytics (RBA) platform is being utilized by Washington DC’s Department of General Services (DGS) to identify and deliver comprehensive energy efficiency savings within its portfolio of commercial buildings. DGS is responsible for building, renovating, maintaining and securing the nearly 30 million square feet of District owned property.
As part of its 'Game Change' initiative to achieve aggressive energy reduction goals in targeted buildings (20% in 20 months), the District will use FirstFuel’s fully-integrated, end-to-end energy analytics platform to help target, analyze and monitor the post-implementation impact of energy efficiency opportunities throughout the city.
Earlier this year, the District finalized regulations that require building energy benchmarking for public buildings, and more recently launched the Build Smart DC platform to visualize building data across the city. Going beyond these great starting points, DGS is using FirstFuel’s technology to help drive deeper, portfolio-wide savings opportunities in a rapid and cost-effective manner. Through remote audits of the program’s first 25 buildings, FirstFuel has already uncovered more than 19 million KWh of energy reduction opportunity, at a 24% average reduction per building - equivalent to the energy needed to power nearly 2,000 District residential homes each year.
FirstFuel’s advanced analytics combines DGS's interval meter data with local weather and GIS data to remotely audit opportunities across the DGS portfolio, which includes everything from municipal office buildings to schools. This analysis is then turned into building-specific efficiency strategies executed by DGS staff, and specific actions are then measured and verified by FirstFuel analytics over time. All of FirstFuel’s services are delivered without any onsite or connected devices, but the company will work with DGS staff and other contractors to realize efficiency improvements.
“Our goal is to leverage data to make efficiency improvements in smart, big, and transparent ways, and FirstFuel’s advanced analytics are a key part of this effort,” said Sam Brooks, Associate Director of the DC Department of General Services (Energy & Sustainability Division). “There’s little doubt that actionable data can be a transformational tool for energy efficiency, and FirstFuel’s ability to translate data into intelligence presents an extremely scalable and cost-effective solution.”
FirstFuel’s platform for energy use intelligence enables comprehensive commercial building savings by delivering “zero touch” analytics across the entire efficiency lifecycle. With an emphasis on operational savings for this deployment, FirstFuel’s analytics will deliver significant low-cost and no-cost savings opportunities to DGS, which can often be implemented at a fraction of the cost and payback time of more traditional retrofit opportunities. Over 60% of the total available savings already found by FirstFuel within the DGS building stock can be achieved through low/no-cost operational changes.
“The District of Columbia is committed to being a global leader in efficiency, and achieving measurable savings that will directly impact their near-term energy bills and long-term sustainability targets,” said FirstFuel CEO Swapnil Shah, “Achieving truly deep energy savings represents a challenge at the single-building level, let alone at city-scale. DGS’ goals, their innovative nature and their data-orientation align perfectly with FirstFuel’s mission. We're very proud to have been selected and look forward to using our unique analytics platform to bring big, achievable energy savings to the District for years to come.”
About FirstFuel Software
FirstFuel Software is the trusted source for energy use intelligence. FirstFuel helps customers deliver scalable energy efficiency across their building portfolios through the Remote Building Analytics platform, which uses advanced meter data analytics to identify, enable, and track energy efficiency savings behind the meter in commercial buildings - all without onsite visits or device installations. Designed to be rapidly and cost-effectively deployed across hundreds or thousands of commercial buildings, FirstFuel changes the scale at which the sector can achieve its energy efficiency goals. Founded in 2009 and privately held, FirstFuel is headquartered in Lexington, Mass. For more information, please visit www.firstfuel.com.
About DGS
The mission of the Department of General Services (DGS) is to elevate the quality of life for the District with superior construction, first-rate maintenance and expert real estate management. By building and maintaining safe and green state-of-the-art facilities which foster economic growth and elevate educational environments, DGS's trusted and skillful employees create modern and vibrant communities across the District of Columbia. DGS recently launched a landmark building performance platform, Build Smart DC, which leverages unprecedented transparency to drive energy efficiency and sustainability improvements across a portfolio with roughly $75M in annual building energy costs.
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