EMIS ReportDesign-Prelim 2020sep11 - Flipbook - Page 31
3.5 Enablers and Barriers to EMIS
Implementation
Through the course of technical assistance and
qualitative data collection from Campaign partners, we
have evaluated and summarized enablers and barriers
to successful EMIS software and MBCx process
implementation. Two of the most significant barriers
to successful EMIS software and MBCx process
implementation include managing data quality and
implementing changes based on the analytic findings.
key steps toward streamlining the implementation
of FDD tools. Project Haystack and Brick are two
such schema.9
there is often a lack staff time to review the EMIS
dashboards and reports, and to investigate and
implement findings. While initially there may be
challenges with operation staff acceptance and use
of EMIS as a day-to-day support tool, staff buy-in
improved with adequate training and support.
While there are challenges with implementing any
new technology, common enablers for successful EMIS
implementation emerged based on the experiences of
Campaign participants:
DATA QUALITY AND DATA MANAGEMENT:
Accurately and efficiently gathering, communicating,
and storing data from various systems and
devices is a common challenge that can lead to
long implementation time frames. One barrier to
EMIS integration has been lack of consistency in
data naming conventions. The data in each
building are labeled with names that describe the
data type, content, unit, location, and relationships
to other equipment. Interpreting the names of data
points into a unified format that is readable for
FDD tools typically involves labor-intensive efforts.
FDD software installation is streamlined when
data points are named and tagged in a standardized
way (potentially reducing installation time with
automated data tagging methods). Creating a
united metadata schema to understand the relationships between points — as well as establishing
standard, consistent naming conventions — are
FIXING ISSUES FOUND: With competing priorities,
MANAGEMENT BUY-IN AND GOALS: Corporate-
level energy savings or carbon emissions reduction
goals have been a driver for EMIS investment
because the EMIS helps monitor progress and
achieve these goals. When management views EMIS
as an essential tool in the building operations staff
toolkit, EMIS is not simply an added cost but part of
standard operating practices.
EMBED EMIS IN STANDARD PROCESS:
3. SMART ENERGY ANALYTICS CAMPAIGN RESULTS
However, cost effectiveness of EMIS can be estimated
by comparing the energy savings they enable to the
costs to procure and use them.
Organizations that institutionalized the use of data
analytics in their standard meeting and reporting
processes found their MBCx process to be valuable,
from both cost savings and building comfort
perspectives.
Table 7 (next page) summarizes a broader list
enablers and barriers found through the course of
working with organizations in the Campaign.
Project Haystack (project-haystack.org) is an open source tag set used to standardize metadata information about equipment and its
relationships in control, energy, HVAC, lighting, and other environmental systems. The model includes naming conventions and taxonomies
to help exchange information and unlock value from the vast amounts of building data. Brick (brickschema.org) is an open source
semantic data model to promote consistent data modeling practices. ASHRAE is pursuing a semantic interoperability standard expected to
incorporate elements of these and other buildings-related schema.
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Berkeley Lab | Proving the Business Case for Building Analytics
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