Evaluation of Persistence of Savings from SMUD Retrocommissioning Program

Commercial building retrocommissioning activity has increased in recent years. Retrocommissioning is a process of identifying and implementing system improvements in existing buildings, with an emphasis on using low cost operation & maintenance tune-ups and diagnostic testing instead of capital intensive retrofits.

This report discusses a recent study of retrocommissioning persistence, conducted by LBNL for the Sacramento Municipal utility District (SMUD). The objective of this study was to examine a selection of the 17 buildings (prior to 2003) that participated in SMUDﾒs program and estimate the persistence of energy savings and measure implementation. The SMUD retrocommissioning program's two primary goals are to reduce overall building energy consumption and guide the customer toward more far-reaching improvements and energy efficiency awareness.

The complete report contains the following documents:

• Executive Summary & Final Report
• Appendix A: Data Analysis Methodology Details
• Appendix B: Site-by-Site Energy Analysis Results
• Appendix C: Interview Notes - Raw Data
• Appendix D: Data Analysis Spreadsheet

The Report is organized in five sections. The Introduction describes retrocommissioning background, persistence of savings issues and previous related work. The Methodology section provides an overview of the data analysis procedures. The Results and Discussion sections highlight and interpret key findings. The Summary section provides conclusions and recommendations.