Benchmarking buildings over 3-years with the National Energy Barometer survey

Commercial buildings use 40% of the total fossil fuel energy worldwide [1] and therefore present large potential energy savings opportunities to contribute to the future energy stability of the country. Incorporating energy efficiency when designing a new building could result in a 50-75% reduction in their energy consumption when compared to designs without energy efficiency in mind [2]. Existing buildings could, through changing the behaviour of occupants and combining this with operational and equipment efficiency, deliver similar energy reductions [3]. The South African market has a vastly established industry of existing commercial building infrastructure and an opportunity to enable reductions in that sector was identified-from it the Energy Barometer was locally developed as a tool to identify energy savings that could be harvested from this building sector. It was subsequently culminated into a National Survey which has been running over 3 years now, entering the fourth year. This article discusses the background to the National Energy Barometer Survey (NEBS), presents the need for benchmarking in the country, and presents the results over the three-year survey period for Utility Years 2009-2011, as well as the benefits experienced by participants.