The Department of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) has a requirement for specific refinements to be made in the base version of the Buildings Decarbonization Alliance Open-Source Model (BDA-OSM):
- to understand the energy, greenhouse gas (GHG) and costing implications of new construction practices and designs in the commercial and institutional buildings sector (including high-rise multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs) and schools) within the model; and,
- to include inputs such as climate data (accounting for changes in climate that impact heating/cooling loads), housing data (archetypes by vintage and size), and equipment data (up-to-date equipment/technology inventory), adding demand response calculations and measures to the model, and additional flexibility in the possible scenarios that the model can run (this could include additional sensitivities around rates, avoided costs, emissions reductions (i.e. grid intensities), equipment costs, policy interventions, economic criteria (e.g. adoption)).
The work will involve the following:
1) Convening of subject matter experts (SME) to design and develop commercial / institutional building archetypes, identify implications in new construction and refine the existing open-source model. This will include conducting 3-5 stakeholder interviews and minimum of three (3) development workshops and/or working group sessions with SMEs (online) (including: one (1) focused on reviewing the enhanced functionality of the modelling tool in line with stakeholder/industry needs and suggesting further improvements; one (1) focused on Methodology (i.e. calculations/code approach, extending the modelling tool for outputs to connect to electricity system models); one (1) focused on Data calibration against provincial/territorial grid peak demand profiles, updates from NRCan’s Comprehensive Energy Use Database (CEUD), and vetting other potential sources of data for the open-source model. The deliverable for this component will include a written summary (max. 2 pages) detailing list of participating SMEs and overview of input received at each workshop/working group session (1 per session).
2) Developing functional requirements and updating the models’ technical and analysis capacity (Model version 2.0). This will require updating existing model architecture, code and capabilities to include refinements already identified by the BDA, as well as determined through SME collaboration (including above specified characterizing measures: climate data, housing data and equipment data, adding demand response calculations and measures to the model, and additional flexibility in the possible scenarios that the model can run). The deliverable for this component will include a written summary detailing all functional updates and refinements completed (including details of all characterizing measures added, removed or updated, calculations (technical and non-technical definitions of calculations and uses), and parameters of additional flexibilities for running modelling scenarios).
3) Conduct modeling to understand implications of workshop results. This will require conducting modeling to understand the implications of the workshop results on a national scale (at Provincial resolution); provision of modeling outputs (data tables) and comparison with other/existing data/analysis.
4) Developing enhanced data visualization capacity of the model to transparently communicate analysis outputs. The deliverable for this component will include data analytics dashboard design (conceptualization and layout) and development of user-generated analysis from the model, including provision of dashboard prototype.
