Abstract

According to the Energy Law in Taiwan, every major energy user has the obligation to submit annual energy record to the government together with own saving target and the plan for the next year. On the other hand, government has also established task forces to investigate their energy use on-site and help discover saving potential accordingly. However, small-medium enterprises (SME) are not intensively monitored by the government due partly to the relatively small amount of energy consumption per store and the number of them are too many to conduct on-site energy investigation, even though their saving potential is empirically considered large.

In order to more efficiently access the profile and potential of SME energy efficiency opportunities, chain stores are the first priority because of the scalability. Various approaches such as high performance envelope, efficient equipment and energy management system are applied but cause more argument on the selection of most appropriate approaches with regard of the best financial investment decision, not to mention SMEs are widely spread in different location of the city where local weather variation should be taken into account.

Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) develops an online GIS building energy visualization and saving platform, aiming to access the energy efficiency and saving potentials of large number of SME, particularly chain stores, effectively and accurately. This platform integrates several functions including the GIS energy consumption data visualization, together with normalized EUI of each building to monitor real-time energy status and facilitate energy policies by analyzing historical data to determine saving potential among the same type of chain stores. EnergyPlus is embedded in this platform together with local official and proprietary databases such as weather, energy-labeled equipment, green materials as well as local/international standards. Unlike EnergyPlus, users such as policy makers and owners are only required to input basic information through a user interface in five steps: 1. Geometry and envelope properties, 2. Internal loads, such as the number of people, interior and exterior lighting features and other equipment, 3. Operating schedules, 4. Refrigeration and air conditioning setup, and 5. Location of the building of which local weather will be selected. When the information is submitted, users can easily obtain details of hourly energy demand loads down to the individual building level. Optimum utility rates and ranking of recommended saving measures according to return of investment (ROI) in addition to full results are calculated and provided by EnergyPlus as well. This platform integrates geographical information and energy simulation to help users more effectively understand their energy status and determine their best policies and saving measures. It has been successfully applied to local chain stores in 2015 and saved 5-15% annually and will undergo a bench scale demonstration in local cities in 2016.