Working with a Class A office building in downtown Richmond on Dominion Energy. Client is questioning my analysis showing they're using 22 kWh/sq ft annually vs my benchmark of 15-17 for similar buildings. Does anyone have more recent Virginia-specific data? The building is about 150,000 sq ft, built in 1985 but renovated in 2009. Their monthly bills are running $18,000-25,000 on Schedule GS-3.
Office building benchmarks - anyone have recent Virginia data?
Don, I don't have Virginia specific data but here in Louisville on LG&E we see Class A offices running 16-20 kWh/sq ft typically. The 1985 vintage is probably hurting them - that's right in the era of energy-intensive building designs. Even with a 2009 renovation, if they didn't upgrade the HVAC systems completely, they're probably still inefficient. What's their occupancy rate?
Pete, occupancy is about 85% which seems normal. I think you're right about the HVAC - the renovation was mostly cosmetic from what I can tell. New finishes and some lighting but I don't think they touched the central plant. The building has four air handlers that look original to 1985. Dominion's demand charges are killing them too - hitting 850 kW peak most months.
Don, 850 kW demand for 150k sq ft seems high even for an older building. That's 5.7 watts per square foot. We typically see 3.5-4.5 W/sq ft for Class A office here in Ohio on AEP. I'd look at whether all their HVAC is running simultaneously. A lot of older buildings don't have proper staging controls and fire up all equipment at once during startup. Also check if they're running any server rooms or data centers that weren't in the original design.