OR-20-020 -- Energy Master Planning: Identifying Framing Constraints That Scope Your Technology Options

This paper addresses the framing constraints for buildingand community energy projects that must be considered whenenergy master planning (EMP) is conducted. The constraintscover emissions, sustainability, resilience, regulations anddirectives, and regional and local limitations such as availableenergy types, local conditions, and project requirements.The paper reflects development results from participantsin an International Energy Agency project on energy masterplanning and in a U.S. Department of Defense project on technologyintegration to achieve resilient, low-energy use militaryinstallations.

It identifies a comprehensive list of framing constraintscategorized into locational threats, locational resources,energy and water distribution and storage systems, buildingand facility, indoor environmental, and equipment in buildingsand district systems constraints. In addition, it identifies limitsfor these constraints that exist in seven participating countries.Some framing constraints can profoundly impact technologyselection while others impact the installation of technologies(as in hardening) and have little to no impact on technologyselection. Framing constraints can be assessed in differentways and there are resources available to help EMP stakeholdersevaluate them. Finally, a case is made that identifyingand applying framing constraints early in EMP can bring efficienciesand better focus to the EMP process.

Conclusions include 1) for holistic energy planning, it isessential to identify and assess the framing constraints thatbound an optimized EMP solution, 2) framing constraintslimits should be evaluated as either hard or soft or promisingtechnologies may fall out of an EMP analysis, 3) to maintainconsistent quality in the EMP process, the identification offraming constraints and their limits, and perhaps their evaluation,should be standardized, 4) a standardized approachcould establish a baseline that can be used, built upon, andimproved, 5) as automated EMP tools are improved or developed,the resources in this paper could possibly contribute totheir interworkings relative to technology screening, and 6)continued climate change and resulting aggressive goal settingwill likely drive a continued and strong emphasis on EMP.