ModSCO a Web Application Based on a Grey-Box Model to Support the Estimation of the Energy Savings in Building Retrofits

Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) can help the European Union (EU) in accelerating the cost-effective renovation of existing building stock. However, there are many risks and barriers that can inhibit the application of EPC. These barriers include uncertainty about building data, lack of quality assurance regarding the post-renovation energy performance, and process complexity. In order to cross these barriers, this paper presents ModSCO. ModSCO is a web application based on a Reduced Order grey-box Model (ROM) able to systematically quantify the energy savings achieved through Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) utilising the schema of the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP). The benefits of utilising ModSCO in terms of accuracy and time savings are demonstrated with a comparison with a whole building energy model developed with IES-VE.

Influence of Employee Performance Contracting on Organization Performance in Kapenguria County Referral Hospital Kenya

Performance contracting is a strategic technique that uses feedback loops to meet desirable targets. Introduction of performance contracting by the government was seen as effective and hopeful method for improvement of the performance in public institutions and state agencies. Past Studies on Performance contracting, and Organization performance shows that there had never been a study on how Performance Contracting influences performance of County Referral Hospitals and there lay the research gap. The research main objective was to ascertain the effect of performance contracting results on organizations performance in Kapenguria County Referral Hospital. In a specific way, the study sought to find out how performance contract target setting influence performance of the Hospital. The target population was 291 employees of Kapenguria County Referral Hospital, the study used a stratified random sampling technique to get the sample size which was 184 employees. Descriptive research design was adopted by this study. The study utilized primary data mainly collected using structured questionnaires. The data collected was then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the help of SPSS. Tables were used to present the results of the study. The study found out that there was a positive and significant relationship between Target setting and Organization performance, this, therefore, implied that setting of targets in performance contracting influenced the organizational performance. results of ANOVA established that there was a significant mean because the coefficients were all less than 0.05. lastly, all independent variables had statistically significant association with the dependent variable at 95% level of confidence. The study, therefore, concludes that performance contracting greatly influence organization performance. Going by high affirmation of the respondents, Performance contracting enhances assertion of more effort by employees to their duties and tasks, motivates employees when rewarded or recognized based on the results of evaluation, enhances work accountability in the organization among others. this study recommends that there should be adequate consultation and involvement of employees in setting of targets, this will lead to high employees’ commitment to the set targets and in turn enhance achievement of the general organizational targets.

Designing a 24-hour perturbation method for the estimation of a building heat transfer coefficient

Verification of the actual thermal performance of a building envelope after renovation is likely to become a useful key for performance contracting in the frame of heavy retrofit operations in buildings. Some existing methods such as the co-heating method, use on-site measurements to estimate the Heat Transfer Coefficient, or its inverse the overall thermal resistance. Although reliable and accurate, they need several days to several weeks of undisturbed measurements which can be rather inconvenient for building occupants and quite expensive in terms of operational costs. This paper investigates perturbation methods to design a 24-h heat input signal that would ensure an accuracy similar to or better than other perturbation methods to estimate an overall thermal resistance of the building envelope. The paper first studies 256 different squared heating signals in a numerical methodology to determine common characteristics of high-scoring 24-h signals. An experimental campaign in a wooden-framed house tested one of the high-scoring signals. The experimental results showed estimation errors higher than expected but consistent with the literature.

Application and risk assessment of the energy performance contracting model in energy conservation of public buildings

With the development of China’s economy, the total area of public buildings is continuously increasing, and higher energy consumption in this field is gradually becoming prominent. In order to improve this situation, China has been working on energy savings in public buildings since 2007. Energy-saving models and energy policies have become the lifeline of sustainable energy development. Furthermore, the energy-saving renovation of public buildings, as a key project, has attracted the attention of governments and scholars. In the report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, energy conservation and emission reduction were given a prominent place. The 13th Five-Year Plan (2016–2020) aims to further promote China’s energy conservation work. On the one hand, administrative and legal measures should be taken to strengthen energy conservation. On the other hand, it is necessary to speed up the establishment of a long-term market-based energy-saving mechanism and to rely on market forces to remove various obstacles to energy conservation. Energy performance contracting (EPC) is a practical and effective method applied in energy conservation. Therefore, this research aims to put forward a relatively perfect energy-saving risk management system for EPC public building projects based on analysis of the factors influencing investment risks of energy-saving projects and the use of quantifiable risk management models, thus providing some theoretical support for the risk decision-making of energy service companies.

Relationship between performance contracting and the implementation of strategic objectives in Kenyan public universities

This study sought to determine the link between Performance Contracting and implementation of strategic objectives in Kenyan Public Universities. The main objective was to establish the extent of utilization of the Performance Contract (PC) as a tool for implementation for strategic objectives in Kenyan public universities. The study was anchored on the Balanced Score Card theory and used a combination of descriptive survey research design and correlation research design. The target population for this study included thirty-one (31) public universities in Kenya; a sample of 62 respondents was drawn from senior management and officers in charge of PC and strategy implementation in each University as well as 10 key informants from the Ministry of Education and the Public Service Performance Management and Coordination Office. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics; correlation and regression analysis was computed to determine the degree of association between the performance of Kenyan public universities in performance contracting and implementation of their strategic objectives. Methodological triangulation and pilot testing were adopted to test for validity while Cronbach Alpha reliability Correlation Coefficient was used to test the reliability of the data. The study established that utilization of Performance Contracts contributes to 74.2% of the changes in strategy implementation in Public Universities in Kenya. It recommends that the universities should focus on the PC as a tool to enhance strategy implementation, allocate more funds for strategy implementation and improve their financial standing by engaging in more income-generating activities.

Profitability of Energy Supply Contracting and Energy Sharing Concepts in a Neighborhood Energy Community: Business Cases for Austria

To ensure broad application of renewable and energy-efficient energy systems in buildings and neighborhoods, profitable business models are vital. Energy supply contracting helps building residents to overcome the barrier of high upfront investment costs while additionally reducing risks related to energy-saving mechanisms. This study examines profitability for energy contractors in a variety of business cases that simultaneously ensure energy cost savings for the residents. A mixed-integer linear optimization model is developed for a neighborhood energy community, consisting of three buildings with diverse usages. In the process, the optimum capacities of building-attached and building-integrated photovoltaics, a heat pump and a gas-fired mini combined heat and power unit are determined to cover the energy community’s electricity and heat load. Results show that cross-domain contracting within energy communities is highly profitable for both, the contractor and the residents, while the extent depends on the accounting method, assumed interest rate and depreciation time. The additional application of energy-efficiency measures in/on the buildings, constituting a combination of energy supply and energy performance contracting, further increases profitability. The investigation of several sensitivities shows that high grid energy costs for electricity and gas enhance profitability of local energy technologies, leading to an increase in optimal technology capacities.

Energy Performance Contracting Initiative in Malaysian Public Hospitals

Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) has integrated sustainability program in the management of its assets particularly hospital buildings in line with the national sustainability goals and the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals. The fundamental sustainability change is significant since 2015 in the public healthcare sector where green business practice is more appreciable through formation of policy and sustainability related programme. Public hospital in Malaysia are very high energy consumers, therefore various energy projects have been implemented through Energy Performance Contracting (EPC). EPC projects in MOH is intended to deliver energy expenditure savings as well as to offset hospital building carbon footprint. EPC practice in government hospitals have managed to offset about 15.7 ktonne carbon emission in 2019 or about 16% of Government building national emission reduction target. Energy project such as energy efficient chiller retrofit, LED lighting retrofit and solar thermal hot water are some of the EPC initiatives by MOH in public hospitals. The energy projects not only serve to meet the overall Hospital Facility Management Contract sustainability goals but also to complement the green building target for Malaysian Healthcare building by 2025. The aim of this paper is to review the development of the EPC projects in public healthcare sector and its impact on government energy spending as well as to the climate.