Measurement & Verification

Measurement and verification, also known as M&V, refers to the overall strategy and methods used to estimate the savings that result from energy efficiency projects.  M&V is important because sometimes energy efficiency projects do not save the energy they were supposed to save.  There are many reasons energy efficiency might not deliver:

• Unrealistic estimates of energy savings
• Improper installation of the technology
• Improper writing of controls sequences
• Failure to commission the retrofits  

The cause of the savings shortfall does not matter.  Good M&V can alert you that there is a problem, if there is one.  It can also demonstrate that your energy efficiency project is performing as expected, or even better than expected.

If there is a savings shortfall, then it gets interesting.  That is when you start digging to find out why the project is not performing.  Often you can remedy any problems.  But you cannot do this if you do not first perform M&V.

There are three deliverables associated with M&V:

• The M&V Plan, which details how the savings are to be measured and estimated.
• The Baseline, which might be part of the Investment Grade Audit, or part of the M&V Plan.  The Baseline is a documentation of how the building used to run before the energy efficiency project was enacted.  If there is to be a group of energy efficiency projects implemented on a building, it is important to have documentation of such things as: equipment inventories, measurements of kW, temperatures, pressures, HVAC schedules, controls setpoints, etc.  This way if any of these parameters change, there is documentation of how it used to be.
• The M&V Reports, which present the reports, back-up calculations and descriptions of the state of the retrofits.