Leveraging Data-Driven Methods and Time-of-Use Data to Evaluate Urban Decarbonization Policies and Streamline Building Energy Audits

Presented by Dr. Abigail Andrews, Post-Doctoral Associate and NJ BPU Energy Fellow in Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy’s Center for Urban Policy Research. 

Identifying opportunities to minimize energy use and carbon emissions of buildings is important for urban decarbonization. However, doing so often necessitates a capital-intensie building energy audit that requires time-intensive on-site inspections. As municipalities across the United States mandate various urban decarbonization policies (e.g., benchmarking, audits, and building performance standards) there is a growing need for building owners to audit buildings efficiently and at a low cost. Emerging data streams (e.g., automated meter infrastructure) allow the evaluation of real time energy use and carbon emissions data. This data not only provides a deeper understanding into building operations but also may provide audit insights and decarbonization opportunities. This seminar will discuss the potential of integrating time-of-use data in urban decarbonization policy and the development of an integrated physics-based model and data-classification method to identify potential inefficiencies in a building using electric meter data. Time-of-use energy data paired with machine learning may streamline urban decarbonization policy by improving the effectiveness and scalability of evaluation processes.

Dr. Andrews received her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University at the Urban Informatics Lab. She also holds a MS in Sustainable Design and Construction from Stanford University and a BA in Environmental Policy from Barnard College. Dr. Andrews uses data from building energy policies (e.g., benchmarking, building performance standards, auditing) to evaluate urban decarbonization potential and to push forward equitable building decarbonization. Currently, Dr. Andrews is interested in how municipalities can encourage the design and construction of Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings.

For questions Dr. David Coit (coit@soe.rutgers.edu), Dr. Aziz Ezzat (aziz.ezzat@rutgers.edu) or Dr. Elin Wicks (elm52@soe.rutgers.edu)