Tools

Tools
Buildings
Berkeley Lab contributes to the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Multizone Airflow and Contaminant Transport Analysis Software (CONTAM), a whole-building airflow and pollutant transport tool. CONTAM couples a multizone network airflow model to a well-mixed pollutant transport model to predict the transport and fate of airborne materials. It includes deposition, filtration, source terms, and other transport models. The intended audience is a broad range of users, scientists, and regulators.
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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.
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The Building Efficiency Targeting Tool for Energy Retrofits (BETTER) is a software toolkit that enables building operators to quickly and easily identify the most cost-saving energy efficiency measures in buildings and portfolios using readily available building and energy data.
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Cross Sector
The Benchmarking and Energy Saving Tool for the Dairy Industry (BEST-Dairy) is a free tool for benchmarking energy/water savings in various dairy processes.
This BEST-Dairy benchmarking tool (V1.2, 2011) is developed for industrial users to compile data on energy and water usage in their own dairy processing plants, and to compare the efficiency levels with those of best references. It is developed and distributed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).
The BEST-Dairy tool allows a user to calculate energy and water use intensity and obtain a benchmarking score(s) for the selected plant, as compared with the best available references that we have identified from literature search nationally and globally. With the best references as the baseline, a higher benchmark score normally means higher savings potential from future efficiency improvement in your plant. The BEST-Dairy is intended to serve as a quick assessment of relative energy and water efficiency, which may also help to identify potential savings opportunities in the plant and processes. Users of the BEST-Dairy are advised that additional information and evaluation of the technologies is needed when considering system upgrades.
This tool is not publicly accessible. Please contact Jing Ke for more information..
CalTOX is a set of spreadsheet models and spreadsheet data sets to assist in assessing human exposures from continuous releases to multiple environmental media, i.e. air, soil, and water. The modeling components of CalTOX include a multimedia transport and transformation model, multi-pathway exposure scenario models, and add-ins to quantify and evaluate uncertainty and variability. All parameter values used as inputs to CalTOX are distributions, described in terms of mean values and a coefficient of variation, rather than as point estimates or plausible upper values such as most other models employ. This probabilistic approach allows both sensitivity and uncertainty analyses to be directly incorporated into the model operation.
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Industry
USEtox™ is a model based on scientific consensus for characterizing human and ecotoxicological impacts of chemicals in life cycle impact assessment. The main output includes a database of recommended and interim characterization factors including environmental fate, exposure, and effect parameters for human toxicity and ecotoxicity. LBNL EAEI scientists were part of the USEtox development team.
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The Conservation Supply Curve (CSC) Modeling methodology is used for capturing engineering and the economic perspectives of industrial sector energy conservation technologies.
This tool is not publicly accessible. Please contact Jibran Zuberi for more information.
The Manufacturing Cost Levelization Model is a cost-performance techno-economic model that estimates total large-scale manufacturing costs necessary to produce a given product. It is designed to provide production cost estimates for technology researchers to help guide technology research and development towards an eventual cost-effective product. The model presented here for download is generic and can be tailored to the manufacturing of any product, including the generation of electricity (as a product). This flexibility, however, requires the user to develop the processes and process efficiencies that represents a full-scale manufacturing facility.
This tool is not publicly accessible. Please contact Jibran Zuberi for more information.
Power Sector
eProject Builder enables Energy Services Companies (ESCOs) and their contracting agencies to upload and track project-level information; generate basic project reports required by local, state, and/or federal agencies; and benchmark new Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) projects against historical data.
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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.
Link to website for download:
The FINDER Model is available through Department of Energy (DOE)-funded state technical assistance programs. For more information, click here.
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.