Impacts of COVID-19 on Energy Savings
In April 2021, the Efficiency Valuation Organization (EVO) released a white paper: Impacts of COVID-19 on Measurement and Verification (M&V) on Energy Savings: Options for Meter-Based Methods - IPMVP and Beyond.
This white paper follows the recent publication of two articles in the March 2021:
- Impacts of COVID-19 on Measurement and Verification (M&V) of Energy Savings: Market Perspectives
- Impacts of COVID-19 on Measurement and Verification (M&V) of Energy Savings: Considerations for Projects & Programs
Source: Northwest Strategic Energy Management Collaborative
Published: April 2021
M&V efforts are facing significant challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic due to shifts in energy use at facilities which are impacting the accuracy of energy savings estimates. Projects using meter-based M&V methods are seeing direct impacts from changes in energy consumption which are skewing estimated savings (i.e., includes COVID savings or COVID penalties).
In the context of M&V, these unexpected changes in site-level energy consumption are non-routine events (NREs), which, if significant, necessitate making non-routine adjustments (NRAs) as detailed in the IPMVP Application Guide on Non-Routine Events & Adjustments (IPMVP NRE/A Guide) recently published by EVO.
All M&V efforts at sites whose energy use is significantly impacted by COVID need to ensure reported savings are not adversely affected by changes resulting from COVID. Given level of judgement inherent in making NRAs and the complexities introduced by COVID’s ongoing and changing impacts, this paper provides more focused guidance on managing the impacts from the pandemic when using meter-based M&V.