Skip to Main Content Area

Energy blogs

Tip for working with approvals on OpenEI
Posted: 11 Jun 2013 - 10:33 by Rmckeel
Group: Utility Rate, Developer

The "ApprovedRevs" extension is the feature on OpenEI that allows crowd-sourced data to be quality-controlled (approved) in a formal fashion. The incentive & policy (including EZFeed data) and utility rate sections use this feature.
Using specially formatted Ask queries, we can create RSS feeds of the latest updated data in any particular category on OpenEI. Here is an example of the EZFeed data update feed. But what if you want to know more about entries that are not yet approved? Check out this page to see pages whose approved revision is not their latest. While it is not filterable by category, it is easy to call out the utility rates (Data:... pages) from the other pages, which are likely incentive & policy data.
We are looking to improve the ApprovedRevs extension in several ways. One is that the API and Ask queries are exporting data that may or may not be approved, and it doesn't tell you which is the case as the actual content page on OpenEI tells you. We are working on a way to avoid any unapproved data from being exported in Ask queries, APIs and even RDF data for categories that have the additional quality control from the Approved Revisions extension.
Please feel free to comment on this blog entry; we'll update the blog entry as soon as possible when we make updates. Thanks,
Ryan
Lighting Electricity Rates on OpenEI
Posted: 31 May 2013 - 13:04 by Sfomail
Group: Utility Rate, Developer

I'm pleased to announce that a new lighting rate category and about 10,000 lighting rates are now officially offered in OpenEI's utility rate database! Streetlights and other similar electric lighting uses are typically billed using uniquely designed lighting rates. Illinois State University (ISU) had contributed approximately 10,000 lighting rates, and now these rates have been categorized under a new "lighting" category (in the same dropdown list that contains "residential", "commercial" and "industrial" categories). With the new categorization, users can now query for lighting rates or filter them out.
Users can expect more lighting rates to be included as the utility rate database continues to expand. We’d love to hear from anyone who’s specifically looking for lighting rates or anyone who would like to see greater support for advanced lighting rate input fields (such as bulb type, power rating, pole height, etc… that typically determine a light’s rate structure).
Introducing FRED, Enabling Unique Visualization and Manipulation of Energy Data at Multiple Scales
Posted: 20 May 2013 - 14:28 by Sfederspiel
Group: OpenEI Community Central, FRED, Energy Data Initiative (EDI)

The U.S. Department of Energy, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the Planetary Skin Institute recently released a new open platform hosted by OpenEI which enables state and local governments, agencies, corporations, and other energy analysts to effectively visualize energy use data and make energy data more useful for decision-making processes. The Free Energy Data (FRED) platform will contribute to the Energy Data Initiative to make energy data more transparent and adaptable for implementing clean energy technologies.
Energy big data and analytics play a pivotal role in effectively planning for long-term energy solutions, which can save money and help protect the environment. However, such big data is often located in multiple, disconnected locations and presented in hard-to-read or dissimilar technical formats. It is also challenging to compare energy use under different scenarios or between different entities. FRED is designed to address these challenges with a common format for diverse inputs. Users can enter their own data and then use it to compare their performance with other jurisdictions and institutions, or track performance over time. The more users that enter data into FRED, the richer the energy data visualization and analysis experience will become. Given its user-friendly interface and location on the OpenEI website, it is easy for a variety of users to contribute and participate in FRED.
FRED’s seed data is drawn from the Energy Information Administration’s State Energy Data System and Annual Energy Outlook, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory efficiency data, and the Solar Energy Industries Association. It is presented in an intuitive geospatial format which can zoom from the international to the local level. Data at a given level can be viewed in graphical formats which show present and past energy demand by fuel and sector. Based on the Annual Energy Outlook, projections of supply and demand out to 2035 can also be displayed. “Sankey “ energy flow diagrams are particularly useful for visualizing how multiple sectors use different sources of energy, and what portion of this supply is utilized versus wasted. These flows can be viewed for previous years, and have the potential to be instrumental in gauging the potential energy and cost impacts of various energy-related decisions. Finally, all of these elements can be compared across multiple jurisdictions by simply clicking on more than one location on the map, thus encouraging greater understanding of regional similarities and differences and sharing of best practices.
FRED’s flexible design and user-driven nature make it a powerful, adaptive tool that will continue to improve with utilization and continual addition of data and additional features. Meet FRED today by clicking HERE. Also, feel free to use this forum to discuss your impressions of FRED, any questions, and feedback to further improve this new resource.
EIA officially recognizes utility rate database on OpenEI
Posted: 17 May 2013 - 13:42 by Sfomail
Group: Utility Rate, Developer, Energy Data Initiative (EDI)

Good news, everyone! The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) now officially recognizes the OpenEI utility rate database. Up until just a few months ago, the EIA website stated:
“EIA does not collect or publish data on electricity rates, or tariffs, for the sale or purchase of electricity, or on demand charges for electricity service, nor does EIA publish retail electricity rates or prices for peak or off-peak periods (sometimes referred to as time-of-use-rates)… EIA is not aware of a publicly available source for this information other than individual utilities.”
But as of February of this year, the EIA website has changed its wording to:
“EIA does not collect or publish data on electricity rates, or tariffs, for the sale or purchase of electricity, or on demand charges for electricity service, nor does EIA publish retail electricity rates or prices for peak or off-peak periods (sometimes referred to as time-of-use-rates)… Utility rates for cities in the United States are now available at the U.S. Department of Energy's Open Energy Information (OpenEI ) platform”
The text can be found here: http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=20&t=3
Being recognized by the Energy Information Administration is a huge achievement for the OpenEI platform, and indicates a level of maturity in terms of the quantity and quality of data provided through this platform. Special thanks go to Illinois State University for accelerating the utility rates database to this caliber!
Commercial and Residential Hourly Load Data Now Available on OpenEI!
Posted: 17 May 2013 - 13:03 by Sfomail
Group: Utility Rate, OpenEI Community Central, Energy Data Initiative (EDI)

Image source: NREL

I am pleased to announce that simulated hourly residential and commercial building load datasets are now available on OpenEI. These datasets are available for all TMY3 locations in the United States. They contain hourly load profile data for 16 commercial building types (based off the DOE commercial reference building models) and residential buildings (based off the Building America House Simulation Protocols). In addition to various building categories, the simulations also consider variations in building construction due to local climate. The data can be accessed here:

http://en.openei.org/datasets/node/961

You may browse and download individual load profiles (for example, hourly load profile for a large hotel in Tulsa, Oklahoma). You can also download the entire dataset (beware: 4.8 GB zipped, 19 GB uncompressed!). Building load profiles are useful/essential for a variety of applications, including calculating utility bill savings for rooftop solar systems, demand response analyses, and residential/commercial renewable energy feasibility studies. A few examples of projects and publications that relied on earlier versions of the data include:

Impacts of Regional Electricity Prices and Building Type on the Economics of Commercial Photovoltaic Systems
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy13osti/56461.pdf

Breakeven Prices for Photovoltaics on Supermarkets in the United States
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy13osti/57276.pdf

Maximizing the Value of Photovoltaic Installations on Schools in California: Choosing the Best Electricity Rates
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy11osti/51694.pdf

The Impacts of Commercial Electric Utility Rate Structure Elements on the Economics of Photovoltaic Systems
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy10osti/46782.pdf

Special thanks goes to Nathan Clark, who has been working on these datasets for over a year! Nathan has also developed a System Advisor Model (SAM) program that allows users to automatically download appropriate load profiles directly into SAM for analysis and visualization. I’ve attached the program to this post, in case anyone would like to use it (you may need to download the latest SAM version to use it). This program will also be included in the next public release of SAM (as a sample samUL file).

Questions and comments are always welcome below!