Energy Exchange 2019
United States Department of Energy
Denver, Colorado
August 20-22, 2019

Rebecca Ellis presented on the topic of Ongoing Commissioning: An Approach for M&V to Unlock & Sustain Energy Savings. She explored the barriers to implementing Measurement & Verification Plans and how the Ongoing Commissioning process can be used to overcome those barriers. The key ingredients are:

  • Enhanced Maintenance
  • Energy Use Monitoring
  • System Performance Monitoring

The more we look, the more things we find that can improve systems performance, reduce energy consumption, and result in a more sustainable operation. However, no benefits are achieved unless there is a plan of action for addressing issues discovered through the Ongoing Commissioning process.

It was an amazingly well-attended session for the end of a full day, everyone seemed to stay awake, and some people even asked questions.

When not presenting, Rebecca participated in a variety of sessions on data center optimization strategies, facilities systems resilience planning and metrics, the federal government’s energy conservation, sustainability, and resilience program results, etc. In between educational opportunities, she enjoyed meeting new people (especially those at the Women in Energy Dinner) and running into many past colleagues from graduate school, the pioneering commissioning days, long-ago projects, and current clients.