THE PROBLEM: Buildings account for about 40% of U.S. energy use and 75% of the nation’s electricity every year, making them a key target for energy reduction. To support the Department of Energy’s goal of increasing energy efficiency and decreasing consumption, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL) Facility Energy Decision System (FEDS) is helping create a more resilient and renewable energy future for vulnerable communities in New England, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest. 

THE SOLUTION: FEDS is a highly customizable Windows-based software tool developed to track and improve energy usage at federal sites. The software enables building management professionals to analyze energy use in a single building, group of buildings, or an entire campus, then identify the most cost-effective pathways for reducing energy consumption while meeting local or federal sustainability goals. FEDS considers factors such as building characteristics, occupancy, local climate data, energy prices, and more. With this data, FEDS can identify and prioritize energy efficiency measures based on cost and savings, compare savings across multiple sites, forecast the impact of potential changes, and support plans for addressing energy and sustainability goals. FEDS offers tools that provide guidelines to advance electrification and decarbonization, which will help agencies and building owners evaluate how best to shift to lower-carbon energy use. 

THE TECH TRANSFER MECHANISM: The tech transfer story began in 2010 with an exclusive licensing agreement with one industry partner. By 2019, the PNNL team had renegotiated that agreement by opening licensing to achieve broader adoption. One key to FEDS’ success is PNNL’s uncommon approach to licensing. The core FEDS team streamlined the typically time-consuming commercialization process by offering standardized licensing terms for multiple user categories; graduated licensing for commercial, nonprofit, or municipal use; a new website offering free trials and training resources; and continuous software updates based on user feedback. New users can go from visiting the FEDS website to implementing the software in a matter of days, expanding the software’s reach. 

THE IMPACT: Today, FEDS has about 500 users, including educational institutions, civic government, federal agencies, and more. For 30 years, FEDS has been a go-to tool for supporting energy efficiency legislation and related goals. Since 1975, data show that the federal government has reduced building energy consumption by 49%, saving about $50 billion — an achievement supported by FEDS’ widespread adoption. In Islesboro, Maine, FEDS models showed a potential to reduce the island’s total energy usage by over 50%, with a 29% savings on electricity cost and nearly 5% savings in fuel oil consumption.