U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Federal Energy Management Program
M&V Guidelines: Measurement and Verification for Federal Energy Management Projects
The M&V Guidelines: Measurement and Verification for Federal Energy Management Projects (PDF 1.1 MB), published by the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), is now available in version 3.0. Download Adobe Reader. The M&V Guidelines provide Federal energy managers, procurement officials, and energy service providers with standard procedures and guidelines for quantifying savings. Intended for use in Energy Savings Performance Contracting (ESPC) and other federal program projects, the guidelines provide methods for establishing savings called for in the ESPC rule.
Types of Federal projects included cover areas such as energy efficiency and water conservation measures, new construction, improved operation and maintenance, cogeneration, and renewable energy.
Before the development of FEMP's M&V Guidelines and other resources, such as the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol and ASHRAE Guideline 14: Measurement of Energy & Demand Savings (First Public Review Draft, April 2000), procedures such as these had to be negotiated for each project. This was time consuming and often resulted in inconsistent energy cost savings.
The objective of measurement and verification is to verify savings with minimum cost and to the satisfaction of all parties. The FEMP protocol is based on and is intended to be fully compatible with the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (MVP).
Both the FEMP M&V Guidelines and the MVP are based on four general approaches to assessing savings. The approaches—called Options A, B, C, and D—are designed to cover the spectrum of project complexity. For many projects, savings may be verified with a minimum of measurement and at a minimum cost. Other projects call for a more rigorous approach to measurement and verification. In general, the more rigorous the verification requirements, the more expensive the verification process will be.
Factors that affect measurement and verification costs include:
- Level of detail and effort associated with verifying baseline and post-installation surveys
- Sample sizes (number of data points) used for metering representative equipment
- Duration and accuracy of metering activities
- Confidence and precision levels specified for energy savings analysis
- Number and complexity of dependent and independent variables that are metered or accounted for in analyses
- Availability of existing data collecting systems
- Contract term
For additional information on this document, please contact Charlie Williams of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at chwilliams@lbl.gov.
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