Tools
Tools
Overview
The Energy Technologies Area offers software tools and resources designed to support a wide range of real-world energy analyses. These tools include modeling and simulation capabilities, in-depth planners, thorough databases, and more. See below to review a select group of available tools from ETA, organized by sector. Additional tools can be found at: buildings.lbl.gov/tools-guides and energyanalysis.lbl.gov/tools.
Buildings Sector
Building Performance Database (BPD)
The Building Performance Database contains anonymized whole building measured energy performance data on over 1 million commercial and residential buildings. It includes an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows to create third party applications using BPD data.
Commercial Building Energy Saver (CBES)
CBES is a web-based energy retrofit analysis tool for small-to-medium-sized commercial buildings in California. CBES provides energy benchmarking and three levels of retrofit analysis considering the project goal, data availability, and user experience. CBES offers 82 energy conservation measures (ECMs) for lighting, envelope, plug-in equipment, HVAC, and service hot water retrofit upgrades. CBES uses OpenStudio and EnergyPlus to create and run energy models. An extended version CBESPro covers all U.S. climate zones.
A free, open-source library for modeling of building energy and control systems using the equation-based, object-oriented Modelica language. The library enables rapid prototyping of new building systems, development and performance assessment of control algorithms, and analysis of the operation of existing buildings.
THERM
Used by building component manufacturers, engineers, educators, students, architects, and others interested in heat transfer. It models two-dimensional heat-transfer effects in building components such as windows, walls, foundations, roofs, and doors. It is useful where thermal bridges are of concern.
Berkeley Lab WINDOW
Calculates performance of window and shading systems. It can be used to design and develop new products, teach about heat transfer through windows, and help develop building energy codes. It calculates total window thermal performance indices (i.e. U-values, solar heat gain coefficients, shading coefficients, and visible transmittances) for glazing and framing, as well as thermal and solar optical effects of a wide range of interior, between glass, and exterior shading systems.
City Building Energy Saver (CItyBES)
CityBES is a web-based data and computing platform, focusing on energy modeling, benchmarking and performance visualization of a city's building stock to support district or city-scale energy efficiency programs. CityBES uses an international open data standard, CityGML, to represent and exchange 3D city models. CityBES employs CBES to simulate building energy use and calculate savings from energy retrofits. CityBES targets urban planners and developers, city energy managers, building owners, utilities, energy consultants and researchers.
Transportation Sector
Medium and Heavy-Duty Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Load Operation and Deployment (HEVI-LOAD)
The HEVI-LOAD tool presents data and analysis in simple formats. Using a web-based interface, users can view large- and small-scale results, such as the State- and County-Level Infrastructure Projections for total chargers, total electric vehicle population, and total energy requirements in 2030.
BEAM CORE
BEAM CORE integrates BEAM, an agent-based transportation system model, with other models that simulate land-use, vehicle purchase and use by households, market penetration of new vehicle technologies, freight and goods delivery, and energy use and emissions, to estimate impacts across a regional transportation system.
Power Sector
FINancial impacts of Distributed Energy Resources Model (FINDER Model)
The FINancial impacts of Distributed Energy Resources (FINDER) Model is used to quantify the impacts of EE, DR, and/or DG on utility shareholders (reported as earnings and ROE impacts) and utility customers (reported as customer bills and rates). Can also assess the resource costs and benefits of various portfolios of EE, DR, and/or DG.
ICE Calculator
The Interruption Cost Estimate (ICE) Calculator tool is designed for electric reliability planners at utilities, government organizations or other entities that are interested in estimating interruption costs and/or the benefits associated with reliability improvements in the United States.
Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model (DER-CAM)
The Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model (DER-CAM) is a powerful and comprehensive decision support tool that primarily serves the purpose of finding optimal distributed energy resource (DER) investments in the context of either buildings or multi-energy microgrids.
Cross-Sector
BEAM CORE: Comprehensive Regional Evaluator
BEAM CORE integrates BEAM, an agent-based transportation system model, with other models that simulate land-use, vehicle purchase and use by households, market penetration of new vehicle technologies, freight and goods delivery, and energy use to estimate impacts across a regional transportation system.
DR-Path
DR-Path is a DR resource analyzing tool built to support the DR Potential Studies funded by California PUC since 2015/16. Well-established tool with assumptions developed using several inputs from multiple stakeholders. Outputs from DR-Path have been vetted by various stakeholder entities and have been used to answer several DR Policy questions in California. The results from DR-Path have been used in: California IOU Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) modeling and other state rulemaking processes (e.g., load shifting goals for California, SB100 updates). DR-Path can determine technical or market achievable DR (shed or shift) potential for any given year and weather scenario. Economic potential can be determined using DR-Path supply curves and other tools that identify the need for and value of demand response.
eProject Builder
eProject Builder (ePB) is a secure, web-based data management platform that allows customers and energy service providers (ESCOs/utilities/contractors) to preserve, track and report information for their portfolio of energy projects in perpetuity. Most functions on this web app require registration. A few functions are available without registering: 1) templates, training documents and videos from the Help & Documentation page; 2) historic project statistics; 3) ECM Price Benchmarking tool.