Energy Data Project Description:
Leveraging Data to Support Residential
Upgrade Programs
MIT Energy Efficiency Strategy Project
The MIT Energy Efficiency Strategy Project (EESP) is researching how increasingly
available energy and building asset data can best catalyze energy efficiency and
conservation. Previous research has focused on developing models of residential
energy disclosure and benchmarking (Nadkarni and Michaels 2012), mapping of
communities’ energy use (Donnelly, Sklarsky and Michaels 2010), and community
engagement strategies (McEwen 2012; Michaels 2009). In 2012-2013, EESP is
applying this research to inform the conceptual design an energy data disclosure
system for the consideration of the energy utility NStar, the City of Cambridge, and
the Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Program. This work will
complement the broader design of a multifamily residential upgrade program in
Cambridge. The Energy Data project will investigate:
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Principles for what parties (owners, tenants, government, third party
providers, etc.) can access what data, under what conditions.
The data formats (utility billing history, value-added data, etc.) that should be
made available to realize a vibrant entrepreneurial environment for
residential energy services and information.
The data presentations (benchmarks and ratings, maps, thermal images,
etc.), contexts (time of listing for sale or lease, efficiency program
recruitment drives, etc.) and messengers (peers, utility, city, upgrade
contractors) that can best catalyze participation in upgrade programs.
The data taxonomy, platforms, and collection protocols for a city program,
considering how the system could be scaled or replicated in other regions.
This project builds from a rich array of data available for Cambridge. Notably, the
EESP has worked with historic utility billing data for Cambridge; this data has been
associated with City assessor data, providing insights into the relationships between
building characteristics and energy performance, and facilitating novel presentation
applications (Kolter and Ferreira 2011). Moreover, the EESP has close association
with a number of organizations and MIT affiliates leveraging novel data sources to
promote residential energy upgrades via electronic applications, including Next Step
Living, Essess, New Ecology and others. Exploring the application and integration of
more well developed databases and applications can inform nascent building data
efforts across the nation, as national efforts to provide greater data transparency
and access proceed.
Work Plan
MIT faculty and students will complete the detailed conceptual design of these
systems during the Spring Term (February – June) of 2013, via one of two avenues:
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A practicum offered by MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning.
Project work of Energy Efficiency Strategy Project.
Research in Fall 2012 will focus on a background review of important documents,
efficiency programs, and pertinent industry initiatives around energy data. Tasks
for Fall 2012 include:
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Review nature of available utility billing data, City building assets data, and
data mining analysis methods to date.
Review US DOE Data Initiatives, Green Button, and other national scale
energy data and disclosure initiatives.
Review Massachusetts DOER Benchmarking Initiative.
Stakeholder analysis of local participants, to inform assessment of political
feasibility of disclosure and benchmarking efforts, and efficiency program
design.
Literature review of efficiency enabling applications, privacy concerns, and
Review energy data and information disclosure applications.
o Next Step Living.
o Essess.com.
o WeGo Wise.
o Etc.
References
Donnelly, Kat, Joshua Sklarsky & Harvey Michaels. July 2010. Community-based
Energy Information Feedback Systems. MIT EESP.
Kolter, Zico and Joe Ferreira. August 2011. A Large-scale Study on Predicting and
Contextualizing Building Energy Usage. Proceedings of the 25th Conference
on Artificial Intelligence of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial
Intelligence. San Francisco.
McEwen, Brendan. June 2012. Community Based Outreach in Residential Energy
Upgrade Programs. Masters Thesis. Department of Urban Studies and
Planning MIT.
Michaels, Harvey. September 2009. Enabling Deep and Scalable Energy Efficiency
in Communities. Report of Energy Efficiency Practicum 11.946. Department
of Urban Studies and Planning MIT.
Nadkarni, Nikhil & Harvey Michaels. March 2012. A New Model for Disclosing the
Energy Performance of Residential Buildings. MIT EESP.