IPMVP: the energy savings protocol to make you go green

2 minutes of reading
Enectiva team

Reducing costs can be done from multiple aspects in a company, and cutting down energy-related costs is becoming crucial, especially since the energy prices spike that occurred during the 2021-2022 winter. And amongst the many solutions, using the IPMVP -which is included in Enectiva- is one of the most important tools to have as a complement to adequately measure the savings. Let’s dive deeper into it.

What is IPMVP

The five-letters acronym stands for International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol, which was set up by the Evaluation Valuation Organization, a USA-based non-profit organisation. When the solutions on energy savings are implemented, it becomes almost impossible to quantify how much was saved by the very nature of a saving - it doesn’t exist anymore. It is with this in mind that the IPMVP has been set-up.

How does it work

To measure something that doesn’t exist, the IPMVP uses historical data to then be able to compute the difference. A typical IPMVP installation takes a setting up time, generally a month, to gather as much data it can on energy consumption, to then use that historical data and compute the savings. 

The comparison uses an equation, which computes the savings based on the subtraction of the reporting period energy from the baseline period energy, plus or minus the adjustments. The reporting period stands for the period after the data gathering period (baseline).

Savings = (baseline period energy - reporting period energy) ± adjustments

In addition to that, the IPMVP protocol used by Enectiva to effectively reduce consumption takes into account environmental parameters to be more precise in the equation and give a better overview of the savings.

The protocol also takes into account the heating and cooling degree days (HDD & CDD), which are a measurement to quantify the demand for energy needed to heat or cool a building. Outside temperature is monitored to directly compute the exact requirements to avoid overspending on energy.

The benefits

The use of such a protocol allows to gather financial information for a more accurate financial report, which can now quantify the amounts saved. It also gives more credibility as it is an internationally recognised protocol, giving more weight to the energy consumption reduction efforts. Finally, its use helps reach the ISO 50001 norm and be in accordance with the green transition. Energy Savings Performance Contracts are competitive and have a lot of requirements, which the IPMVP helps reach easily.