Sustainable Building Energy Efficiency Retrofit for Hotel Buildings
Using EPC Mechanism in China˖Analytic Network Process (ANP) Approach
Abstract
Building Energy Efficiency Retrofit (BEER) is considered as a valuable way to
improve energy efficiency of high-energy-consumption buildings. Sustainable BEER
helps integrate sustainable development strategy into existing buildings and retrofit
projects. To ensure BEER projects that can fulfill the sustainable development strategy,
Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) is one possible market mechanism to deliver
energy efficiency projects. Sustainable BEER under the EPC mechanism is a
comprehensive system which involves the various demands of sustainable dimensions,
performance criteria and groups of project success factors, making multi-criteria
decisions become a challenging problem for decision makers. This paper aims to
examine the interrelationships of sustainable BEER by focusing on an existing hotel
building. EPC mechanism is applied in the case study and an effective Analytic
Network Process (ANP) approach is also employed in the research. The result indicates
that sustainable BEER in hotel buildings under the EPC mechanism is mainly
determined by project control mechanism, available technology, organizing capacity of
the team leader, trust, accurate Measurement and Verification (M&V), and team
workers’ technical skills. Decision makers should dedicate more attention to these
aspects. From the research findings, several policy implications are proposed in this
paper.
Keywords: Building energy efficiency; retrofit; Energy performance contracting
(EPC), ANP
1 Introduction
Building Energy Efficiency Retrofit (BEER) is defined as a project for reducing the
operational energy use in buildings through building envelope improvement and mechanical systems upgrades, while preserving the comfort of the indoor environment.
BEER could reduce energy expenditures and minimizes emissions (Sun & Liu, 2007;
Han et al., 2006; Xu et al., 2009). Hotel buildings, as a high energy-consuming type of
public building, offer much opportunity for energy efficiency improvement (Xu et
al.,2012; Zhou et al., 2008; Xue, 2007). A survey in Beijing showed that the electricity
consumption was 100-200 kWh/(m2
.a) (Xue, 2007). The range was 55-144.3
kWh/(m2
.a) in Chongqing in 2006 (Zhou et al, 2008). When conducting a BEER
project, the project delivery process should be considered. Energy performance
contract, provided by Energy Service Companies (ESCOs), has been used as a market
mechanism to deliver energy efficiency projects, and is a turnkey service that provides
customers with a comprehensive set of energy efficiency, renewable energy and
distributed generation measures intended to improve energy performance and cost
efficiency of facilities (Seefeldt, 2003; NAESCO, 2007). The EPC mechanism first
emerged in the US in 1970s and was introduced into China in 1990s (Shen, 2007). EPC
mechanism has developed fast in China and more and more energy efficiency projects
have been implemented using this mechanism. This research focuses on BEER in hotel
buildings using the EPC mechanism.
Recently, much attention has been paid to the issue of sustainable retrofitting. Keeping
and Shiers (1996) proposed the “green” refurbishment concept and analyzed the
potential benefits of a “green” approach to building refurbishment. Sobotka and Wyatt
(1998) applied the principles of “sustainable development” to a renovation of
apartment buildings. Sitar et al. (2006) considered a model of sustainable renovation
for multi-apartment buildings. Mickaityte et al. (2008) presented a concept model of
sustainable building refurbishment, which provides excellent opportunities to reduce
energy consumption and encourages the implementation of other sustainable
2 The ANP structure
The process of the ANP comprises the following four steps ( Saaty, 1996; Saaty, 2001;
Saaty, 2005): (i) Model construction: A problem is decomposed into a network in
which nodes corresponds to clusters. (ii) Pairwise comparisons and local priority
vectors: In this step, the elements are compared pairwisely with respect to their impact
on other elements. Step 3 Supermatrix formation: The local priority vectors are entered
into the appropriate columns of a supermatrix, which is a partitioned matrix in which
each segment represents a relationship between two clusters. (iv) Final priorities: the
final result could be calculated based on previous steps.
Before the model was developed, the key performance indicators (KPIs) for sustainable
BEER in hotel buildings and the critical success factors (CSFs) of the EPC mechanism
had been identified in the authors’ previous research (Xu et al.,2012; Xu & Chan, 2013;
Xu et al., 2011). Six KPIs and six CSF clusters with 21 CSFs were identified The relationships among KPIs and CSFs were also examined in previous research of
the authors (Xu & Chan, 2013). An ANP structure is constructed in Fig. 2 based on
these relationships and illustrates two components: the control hierarchy and networks.
Six key performance indicators were selected to measure the sustainable performance
of BEER in control hierarchy. The networks part is much more complicated, containing
six sub-networks of CSFs corresponding to the six KPIs, which reflects the contribution
and affects on sustainable performance of BEER
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