IEA HPP Anx 44 Performance indicators for energy efficient supermarket buildings

The Danish participation in Annex 44 follows the last year of the 3 year duration of the original project, followed by a half year aimed at dissemination for stakeholders in the Danish supermarket sector. The results of Annex 44 will give supermarket organizations the possibility to turn their available data into knowledge concerning the energy efficiency of their supermarket(s), in relation to other supermarkets in the same chain or to competing supermarkets. In our “information society” there is an abundance of data, but this data remains meaningless when it is not transformed into knowledge. Someone may have collected fuel station bills for years and years, but as long as he doesn’t know the car’s mileage there is no knowledge on the car’s fuel efficiency. The same is true in the supermarket environment. There is a clear trend that more and more monitoring systems measuring e.g. temperatures (typically to secure and validate food quality) and energy are installed in supermarkets. Measurements are taken and stored, and energy cost data is available, but still in many cases there is no knowledge about the supermarket’s energy efficiency compared to other supermarkets in the same chain, or to competing supermarkets. This Annex 44 proposes the use of performance indicators for evaluating the energy efficiency of supermarket buildings. Detailed computer modelling of supermarket buildings would also be a possible method to arrive at this goal, but supermarkets cannot generally spare the time needed for gathering the large amounts of data needed by such models. Performance indicators are needed to transform available necessary data into knowledge on the energy efficiency of a supermarket building. Such indicators are e.g. the supermarket size, the opening hours, the outdoor climate and the inventory of the display cases and cold roms etc. When the energy use is related in  the correct way to the supermarket characteristics, it becomes possible to appreciate the energy use of the supermarket: Is it relatively high, normal, or relatively efficient. In IEA HPC Annex 44 “performance indicators for energy efficient supermarket buildings” performance indicators will be defined that will allow to evaluate energy efficiency of existing single supermarkets, supermarkets within one chain, supermarkets across different chains and even supermarkets in different regions or countries. Benchmarking with the best in the field will create transparency and enhance the awareness of how to improve operation and to look for the most economical way to improve the efficiency. Thus the transparency created becomes the a driver for the adoption of new technologies such as heat recovery, LED lighting systems and system integration with distributed energy systems such as district heating networks etc. Useful energy consumption data for supermarkets can also be used at a national level to map energy use and benchmark best practices for supermarket buildings.