The project is a two story building in rural Pennsylvania. The 55,000 sf building opened in 2001 and consists of a 12,200 sf exhibit space, above a 41,000 sf global data center, with ancillary spaces totaling approximately 1,800 sf on the lower floor. The EBOM Reference Guide offers 3 compliance paths to document energy performance for EA prerequisite 2 and EA credit 1. This CIR is attempting to get clarification on an acceptable approach to establishing a baseline for these credits prior to initiating the project application. The EBOM reference guide has the following options to develop a baseline: Option A: This is an inappropriate path as the building cannot be rated by Energy Star, more than 50% of building is classified as a data center. Option B: The USGBC EAc1 Option B&C Offline calculator indicates that the project should follow an Option C compliance path per Question C4 as more than 10% of the project building space is classified as a "data center". Option C1: The CBECS "Other" category includes a wide range of buildings from very energy intensive spaces (such as laboratories) to spaces with low energy intensity (such as aircraft hangers). As our project type is closer to the highest intensity spaces listed in the "other" category, this comparison appears to contain too many unknowns to be helpful to the project and establish an accurate baseline worthy of comparison to. Option C2: This option cannot be used as the project does not have 3 years of complete historical utility data available for all end uses. The last option available to us is to use Option C3. Given the commercial sensitivity around the energy performance of comparable data centers, the project team has had difficulty gaining any access to comparable utility data. However, we have access to an available data set from the New Building\'s Institute as found in their report entitled "Energy Performance of LEED for New Construction Buildings (March 2008)." The NBI report compares the EUI for a number of discrete building types, including one labeled "data centers" that we feel is appropriate to use. The report defines a data center as "all building types with high computer activity around the clock," which mirrors our project. In addition, the NBI data is generated from six projects, which exceeds the three representative buildings that Option C3 requires. Finally, the EUIs in the NBI study were generated based on the most recent 12 months of utility data for purchased site energy and included all end uses in each case. By logging our data for 12 months, we feel that we can use the NBI study as a baseline for comparison with our project. Can you confirm that we can use the data set of "Data Centers" as contained in the NBI study referenced above as a baseline for our project?
The project team requests clarification for the approach that should be taken for developing and energy use baseline for building that is primarily a data center. Buildings for which the floor area allocated to computer data center exceeds 10% of the total floor area must used Option C to demonstrate energy performance. Within Option 3, there are three methods for establishing a baseline, with a different number of points available depending on the path used. The differing number of points available reflects the relative robustness of the baseline resulting from each path. For Option C1, the project team should enter the building\'s space types and square footages into the calculator. The 41,000 data center should be classified as "computer data center", and the other spaces classified based on their use. For Option C2, the project team must have access to three years of historical data use for the entire project building. Please note that energy consumption by end-use is not required (i.e., submetering by end-use), though whole building consumption must be known (i.e., at least main meter for each energy type). For Option C3, generally both comparable buildings AND three years of historic data are required to pursue this path. In the event that historic data from the project building is unavailable because a) the building will be less than four years old at the end of the performance period, or b) the building will have had whole-building metering for all energy types in place for less than four years at the end of the performance period, projects can pursue Option C3 by benchmarking against six comparable buildings instead of the typical three. Please note that this allowance cannot be exercised unless condition a) or b) above is true. A maximum of seven points can be earned through this approach. The New Building\'s Institute does not believe the study cited above forms an appropriate basis for benchmarking, and must not be used to develop the LEED Baseline. Applicable Internationally.