A Parametric Analysis Tool for Building Energy Design Workflows: Application to a Utility Design Assistance Incentive Program

Utility design assistance programs face cost-effectiveness challenges due to rising code minimums and the increased costs of the advanced energy analysis needed to design beyondcode buildings. Because of this pressure, managers of these programs are looking for ways to lower the cost of energy analysis and increase the performance of the buildings being designed. The energy consultants that perform this analysis typically use a workflow in which they define a baseline energy model, run a number of alternative design scenarios, and use the results to recommend a particular set of energy conservation measures (ECMs) for a project. Such a workflow is possible using the first version of the OpenStudio Parametric Analysis Tool (PAT), which additionally leverages the flexibility of OpenStudio Measures and the Building Component Library (BCL) to enable user-customizable, sharable parametric descriptions of ECMs. PAT is a flexible, freely available tool, which can be used for many types of building energy simulation projects. In this paper we will focus on the use of PAT as part of the Xcel Energy Design Assistance Program and explain the particular features that were built-in to support that use case, including utility-approved measures and energy model input data, utilityspecific Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QAQC) checks, automated reporting, and access to cloud computing. Xcel has found that using PAT helps its EDA program remain viable by making energy modeling cheaper while finding equal or deeper savings without sacrificing quality.