In a prior ESTCP demonstration, the project team deployed Cimetrics Analytika, a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) commissioning and fault detection service, at two Department of Defense (DoD) installations, serving over 100 buildings and 3,000,000 ft²and delivering over $200k per year in energy savings. Building on that success, this project aims to do the following:  

• Demonstrate the ability to replicate and scale analytics at up to three additional installations.
• Test a Center of Excellence model where dedicated DoD teams like those at Construction Engineering Research Laboratory could provide analytics and commissioning support services to installations.
• Demonstrate new applications including enterprise level performance reporting.  

Cimetrics Analytika is an enterprise commissioning, analytics, and fault detection and diagnostics platform for mechanical, utility meter, and control systems. Analytika uses building automation system (BAS) or Facilities Related Control System data to continuously and automatically identify energy-wasting faults and operational issues. A Cache Poller device collects the operational data directly from the endpoints (sensors, motors, fans, valves, meters, and similar). An analytics engine models the mechanical systems to identify faults and savings opportunities. An interactive portal tracks issues and resolution. And a service model provides expert analyst support to help busy facilities teams find and resolve issues during routine calls. This acts as a workforce multiplier and eliminates the burden of analyzing and interpreting the data, a task that most energy managers lack the training or time to complete. The platform is agnostic to controls-vendor and can be readily integrated with virtually all BAS architectures. When deployed at scale, enterprise level metrics can indicate which buildings, installations, or vendors are struggling and may be used to justify requests for resources. In addition, this project puts forward an innovative DoD Center of Excellence service delivery method, where teams of expert analysts within the DoD could provide analytics support services centrally to the installations.

HVAC systems often waste energy due to misconfiguration, neglected maintenance, or hardware issues. These issues, many of which can be addressed at no/low cost, can go undetected or unaddressed for years, leading to significant unnecessary energy expenditure or premature equipment failure. Persistent retro-commissioning can produce annual energy savings of up to 20% or up to $0.40/ft², typically with payback in under two years. Leveraging automated analytics to reduce labor intensity, this approach could unlock cost-effective DoD savings opportunities of $100-200 million per year.  

This effort would initiate a Cloud authorization to enable further scalability at up to five DoD installations. A successful demonstration will continue to show net-positive returns on investment, while making DoD’s buildings and mechanical systems operate more efficiently and reliably.  

Non-energy benefits include reductions in facility electric demand, extended equipment lifetime, and lower operation and maintenance costs. The DoD Center of Excellence approach is a new avenue for delivering analytics services to multiple installations more effectively, supporting the sites that need it the most and uncovering the obstacles to progress. (Anticipated Project Completion - 2028)