Energy Efficiency in Commercial Buildings

Introduction

Cities contribute significantly to the growth of any country's

economy. At present, Indian cities contribute to 60% of the
countrys gross domestic product (GDP), and by 2030 this
percentage is expected to increase to 70. Due to the swift urban
sprawl and transformation of cities into economic hubs, India is
facing the challenge of urgent development of urban
infrastructure such as housing, office spaces, mobility, and energy
generation and distribution.
As per the Twelfth Five-year Plan (201217), commercial building is
defined as any building, which is neither used for residential nor
for industrial purposes. These building types include offices,
hospitals, hotels, retail outlets, educational buildings, government
offices, and so on. According to Energy Conservation (EC) Act
2001, building means any structure or erection or part of a structure
or erection, after the rules relating to energy conservation building
codes have been notified under clause (a) of section 15 of clause (l) of
sub-section (2) of section 56, which is having a connected load of 500
kW or contract demand of 600 kVA and above and is intended to be
used for commercial purposes. An amendment was made to the EC
Act in 2010, which states that Commercial buildings which are
having a connected load of 100 kW or contract demand of 120 kVA
and above come under the purview of ECBC under EC Act.
Commercial buildings can be broadly categorized into three based
on:
1. the number of functions it serves,
2. the ownership, and
3. the operating hours.
Based on the number of functions it serves, they can be classified
into two, as given below.

a) Single function building (buildings used for only as offices, hotel,

hospital, etc.)
b) Multiple functions building (buildings catering to two or more
building functions such as shopping and hotel, shopping and
offices, etc.)
Based on the ownership, buildings can be classified again into two.
a) Owner-occupied building, where the owner invests money for
the building design and construction and finally occupies and
operates the building. In this building, the benefits of upfront
capital investment on energy efficiency measures will be directly
appreciated by the owner.
b) Core and shell building, where the developer invests on the
building design and construction and finally rent, lease or sell to
single or multiple tenants. In this building, the benefits of capital
investment on energy efficiency measures will be enjoyed by the
tenants. Due to this split benefit, the developer of the Core and
Shell project is often reluctant to invest on energy conservation
measures unless higher premium on the project is assured.
Based on the operating hours, a building can fall into the following
four categories.
a) Single shift operation (~8 hours)
b) 1 shift operation (~14 hours)
c) Double shift operation (~16 hours)
d) Triple shift operation (~24 hours)
Energy Consumption in Commercial Buildings

The commercial building sector consumes about 8% of the total

electricity generated in India and this is growing at 11%12%
annually. Based on the study conducted by ECO III project on
estimation of commercial floor space in India, the total built-up
area of commercial buildings will be 763 million square metres by
2013 (extrapolated considering 5% as CAGR). It is expected that
the commercial stock will annually increase by 3%5%. According
to the study on building energy benchmarking conducted by ECO

III project, the average energy performance index (EPI) for

commercial buildings will be ~70 kWh/m /year.
2

The above plot summarizes the EPI range for various commercial
building types. It can be seen that public sector office buildings
have EPI of ~100 kWh/m /annum; this may be associated with
relaxed acceptable thermal comfort requirements in public office
buildings and less air-conditioned area. The EPI of three-shift
commercial office buildings has been benchmarked at 350
kWh/m /annum. This is primarily due to extended operation timing
of these building. Shopping malls have EPI of around 250
kWh/m /annum; this is due to excessive air-conditioned areas. By
integrating energy conservation measures mentioned in the
Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC), it is expected that the
overall energy requirement for commercial buildings can be
reduced by 30%40%.
2

Energy Efficiency Policies, Regulation, and Rating Systems

Energy Conservation Building Code

In 2001, the EC Act was introduced by the Government of India to
emphasize the national priority on energy efficiency in all sectors.
Under the provisions of the EC Act, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency
(BEE) was established in 2002. The BEE is mandated to reduce the

energy intensity of the Indian economy by actively working with

stakeholders to accelerate the adoption of energy efficiency
measures.
For mainstreaming the energy efficiency in the building sector, the
BEE has introduced ECBC in May 2007. This is applicable to both
new buildings and those undergoing renovation. The ECBC is
applicable to buildings or building complexes with the connected
load of 100 kW or greater or contract demand of 120 kVA or
greater.
Currently, the ECBC is in voluntary implementation phase and the
compliance rate is forecasted to increase gradually from 10% until
2013 to 35% in 2015 and 65% by 2017. The ECBC provides both
requisite and prescriptive requirements for five building
components, namely (a) Building Envelope, (b) Heating, Ventilation
and Air Conditioning (HVAC), (c) Service Water Heating and
Pumping (d) Lighting, and (e) Electrical Power. For compliance with
ECBC, the project can adopt either the prescriptive method or
whole building performance method. The trade-off method is
available only for building envelope category. Online conformance
tools ECOnirman Prescriptive and ECOnirman Whole Building
Performance can be used to show compliance with ECBC
requirements.
BEE Star Rating for Buildings
The BEE has introduced the star labeling programme for existing
commercial buildings, which provides label to the buildings based
on their actual energy performance. The BEE star labeling is
applicable to buildings with the connected load of 100 kW or
greater or contract demand of 120 kVA or greater. One to five
stars are awarded to the buildings based on their specific energy
use with five star label recognized as the most efficient building. A
standardized format of data collection of actual energy
consumption of the building was developed to collect information
pertaining to building built-up area, conditioned and non-

conditioned areas, type of building, hours of operation of building

in a day, climatic zone, and other information related to facility.
Currently, this rating is applicable to office buildings, business
process outsourcing (BPO) buildings, and shopping malls. In
future, the BEE would extend the star labeling to hotels and
hospitals.
For office buildings and shopping malls, the EPI in kWh/m /year is
considered for the building energy performance, while for BPO
buildings the average annual hourly EPI (AAhEPI) in Wh/h/m will
be used to report the building energy performance. Both grid and
captive electricity will be considered for the calculation of EPI and
AAhEPI but this will exclude on-site renewable energy production
such as photovoltaic. The rated project has to submit the details
of the energy consumption annually to show its conformance to
the awarded rating.
2

For office buildings, the EPI bandwidth for three climatic zones in
India (composite, warm-humid, and hot and dry) are provided for
two categories (more than 50% air-conditioned built-up area and
less than 50% built-up area). The EPI bandwidth for shopping malls
and AAhEPI bandwidth for BPO buildings are also collated based
on the four climatic zones in India (composite, warm-humid, hot
and dry, and temperate). As per BEE website in January 2014, 108
buildings are awarded with BEE star label.
Building Rating Systems
There are three voluntary rating systems applicable for building
design. These are

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)/Indian

Green Building Council (IGBC)

Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA)

Ecohousing

LEED India or GRIHA pre-certified projects will get opportunity for

out-of-turn environmental clearance. This fast-track clearance
would be applicable for building projects with the total built-up
area 20,000 m to <1,50,000 m .
2

BEEPs Main Activity for Design of Energy-Efficient Commercial

Buildings

Integrated Design Charrette

BEEP will organize integrated design charrette for 24 large
commercial projects at their early design stage to make them
energy efficient. Design charrette is conceptualized as a four-day
workshop where a team of senior Swiss architect, senior Swiss
engineer, and Indian experts works with the local project team to
develop an energy efficiency concept for the project. Design
charrettes will be organized for both public and private projects.
Projects are selected based on the expression of interest received
from the project proponents or developers.
Request for Expression of Interest (EoI) is shared periodically with
developers, developer's association, state designated agencies
(SDAs), and public sector undertakings (PSUs).
Other Supporting Activities

Integrated Design Seminar

BEEP will conduct 16 integrated design seminars to disseminate
the knowledge and experience of high performance building
designs. The seminars will be targeted at architects, planners,
builders, developers, engineers, and government officials.
External Movable Blind
External movable blinds are innovative technology, which are used
for the dynamic protection of buildings from excessive solar gains.
In several European countries, they have become a mainstream
practice. In Switzerland, they are compulsory for cooled
commercial buildings. In India, the use of this technology is at a
very initial stage. Therefore, a design competition for external

movable shading systems is proposed forinducing the

development of an India-based production of external movable
shading devices.
Earth Air Tunnel (EAT)
The EAT technology is a promising low-energy technology for
conditioning of buildings. A dimensioning tool will be developed
on the basis of an existing tool created by Dr Pierre Hollmuller of
the University of Geneva.
Based on his research, he has developed a Microsoft Excel-based
simplified design and dimensioning tool, and TRNSYS-based
simulation tool. Using the monitored data from the two EATs in
Indian tropical climate, he has adopted the tool for Indian climatic
conditions.