Best Practices

Attempting both options is ideal. This way, you can submeter your actual energy use and pay only for this energy. It may even be possible to pay the utility directly. 

Installation of the M&V system should be fairly straightforward. Depending on your system and the experience of the subcontractors, however, specialized contractors may be needed. If the tenant is performing M&V they need to include the facilities manager in the planning. The M&V plan for core and shell buildings should anticipate this and establish a process for collaboration with future tenants. (See Resources for information on qualified practitioners.) 

Design your M&V program for use throughout the life of the building to provide the highest return on investment. However, for credit compliance it is best monitor for at least one year.

You need to write but not implement the M&V plan for tenants. Your M&V plan should include detailed information for tenants—what actions they need to take to connect their spaces to the base-building metering network, and what they need to do to achieve LEED-CI EAc3. 

When writing the M&V plan for tenant guidance, provide detailed information on ways to connect to the base building M&V infrastructure. It is helpful to give product information and specific recommendations for mechanical and electrical systems. 

The calibrated energy simulation gives the owner and facility operator a true picture of savings from the ECMs instead of the predicted savings from the energy model developed during design. A simulation model developed during design makes a lot of assumptions about occupancy patterns, set points, and weather. A calibrated energy model replaces those assumptions with real data while accommodating unforeseen program changes. If the actual results are 10% greater than the predicted ones, compare the differences between the assumptions and the actual settings.

The ECM usage can be tracked on a simple spreadsheet; complicated calculations or modeling is not required.

Installation of the M&V system should be fairly straightforward. Depending on the system and the experience of the subcontractors, however, specialized contractors may be needed. (See Resources for information on qualified practitioners.) 

Projected baseline energy use is calculated by an energy model during the design phase. All ECMs are removed from the model, and this energy data becomes the baseline to determine energy savings when compared to actual energy use. According to Option D of

Projected baseline energy use can be determined using energy efficiency standards or guidelines.