Measurement and Verification of energy efficiencies is a standard set of ways to determine how much real savings results from an energy project, a fact which is critical in determining a project's true impact both to a facility's bottom line and to the environment.

Three fundamental industry standard options are used in determining energy use.

• System-Level Measurement — isolating the performance of a single energy-using system or a group of similar systems, such as a bank of light fixtures, a plumbing fixture, or a single chiller, boiler, or air-handler. This practice normally requires installation of specialized metering equipment tailored to the type of energy consumed, as well as careful data collection and management.

• Whole-Building Measurement — treating the building as a single energy-using system by tracking the flows of all commercial energy sources entering it, including electricity, gas, oil, hot water, and steam. This is usually done with consumption data from utility bills.

• Calibrated Simulation — estimating the energy use with building energy modeling software, at either a system or whole-building level, then comparing those results to some measurement for verification requires specialized knowledge and deep experience to get good results. This is the only option when no measured energy baseline is available (for example, new construction or a retrofit that's already been done). Also suitable when system-level measurement is too expensive but whole-building measurement isn't accurate enough.

Problem: Measurement and verification of energy efficiency initiatives, particularly those non-capital based improvements to operational practices and processes require expert tools for data management and auditable, repeatable processes. How does a company pragmatically accomplish a high level of accuracy in measuring and verifying energy efficiency improvements without incurring additional costs that may in themselves endanger the effective return on investment (ROI) of these activities?