DiLytics Powered BayREN’s Efforts to Improve Energy Efficiency and Compliance with Building Energy Codes by Implementing a Cloud Based Data Aggregation and Reporting Solution

The Bay Area Regional Energy Network (BayREN), founded in 2013, is a collaborative effort of the nine counties that make up the San Francisco Bay Area. It operates in the Environmental Services industry and is overseen by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). BayREN’s mission is to implement successful regional energy-saving programs, leveraging the knowledge and experience of local governments in the Bay Area. BayREN achieves this by developing and administering programs that promote climate protection, resource conservation, and sustainability. 

 

 

Business Context 

One of the six programs that BayREN currently runs is called the ‘Codes and Standards Program’. The Codes and Standards Program, running since 2013, aims to improve building performance by enhancing compliance with energy codes. It achieves this by providing training for building department staff on various aspects of energy codes, including new construction, alterations, and specific technologies like heat pump water heaters. Additionally, it also offers permit guides, best practice documents, and other resources to streamline the code compliance process.

 

Though BayREN employed a very comprehensive approach and undertook a variety of activities toward the achievement of the Codes and Standards Program’s objectives, it suffered from several business and technical issues indicated below:

BayREN Challenges

To address these challenges, BayREN identified the need to implement a data analytics solution that will source data from multiple sources, store it in a persistent form in a centralized location, enable its analysis from different stakeholders’ perspectives and present it to users in a visually appealing manner.  

Through a competitive bidding process, BayREN chose DiLytics as its partner to implement such a solution. 

DiLytics’ Solution 

DiLytics went about the task of implementing the solution in a phased manner which comprised the following phases: 

 

1. Discovery Phase 

 

DiLytics started the Discovery phase by identifying the various stakeholder groups involved in the Program and gaining an understanding of the role that they play in carrying out Program activities at the ground level. Based on this understanding, DiLytics created structured questionnaires for each stakeholder group and shared it with them well in advance of the scheduled discovery workshop date. Utilizing the structured questionnaire as the basis of the discovery workshop discussion, DiLytics elicited the required information pertaining to the various aspects of the Program from the stakeholders.  

 

The different stakeholder groups that DiLytics held the workshops with, included: 

  • Program Lead: Possesses overall responsibility of the Codes & Standards program across the region
  • Implementer: Manages day-to-day operations, customer service, and event coordination
  • County Representatives: Acts as the link between the program and their respective counties. Their responsibilities include ensuring their county’s needs are addressed, facilitating collaboration among local government staff, and promoting the program through outreach efforts within their county


DiLytics also conducted a thorough review and analysis of the Program’s existing IT architecture, processes, data flow, and technical design. Leveraging its extensive experience in Data Warehousing, Data Integration, and Analytics, DiLytics evaluated BayREN’s current platform, identified issues, gaps, unrealized opportunities, and technology deficiencies.  

 

DiLytics utilized the insights gathered from the workshops to: 

  • Understand the current state of the Program
  • Draw the future state desired by various Stakeholder groups
  • Identify strategies to take the Program from its current state to the future state
  • Create a roadmap for implementing the identified strategies

The output of the discovery phase was a comprehensive report that captured the findings related to the current state of the Program and the future state desired by stakeholders; analysis of those findings; recommendations about the proposed solution, its architecture, tools for various architecture components; and the roadmap to implement the solution. 

 

2. Implementation Phase 

 

DiLytics went about implementing the solution by leveraging its established methodology that comprised of the following phases: 

  • Solution Design
  • Solution Development
  • Key User Training
  • User Acceptance Testing
  • Solution Deployment
  • Post Go-Live Support

The solution entailed an automated data integration process that extracted data from the flat files application; consolidated the data into a cloud-based data warehouse on Snowflake; and disseminated insights to users via a data visualization tool, Tableau. A high-level architecture of the solution is depicted in the schematic below:

Architecture of BayREN's Solution

The solution enabled a series of interactive reports that offer a visual representation of key metrics across various aspects of the Program, allowing for easy interpretation and analysis.  

 

Some of the key reports that the solution provided include: 

  • Quarterly Forum Reporting: This report possesses registration and attendee information for each forum.
  • County Dashboard: This report contains an ongoing and updated list of all attendees and their associated data (jurisdiction, profession, contact info, etc.) and a pivot table outlining the jurisdictions present in each training/forum, as well as the number of city/county staff present at each training/forum.
  • Quarterly Training Reporting: This is an ongoing and updated schedule of all training events, on-demand training views, a running list of all registered attendees and actual attendees, and the evaluation (survey) data for each training.
  • Annual Forum Reporting: This report contains the registration and attendee information for each year’s forums, split between quarters.
  • Annual Training Reporting: This report is an ongoing and updated schedule of all training events, on-demand training views, a running list of all registered attendees and actual attendees, and the evaluation (survey) data for each training.
  • Training Report Calculation Master: It is an ongoing and updated list for a given year’s training metrics. It includes all the information needed to create the annual training report.
  • Training Report Master: This report is sent to the client in tandem with the Training report. This spreadsheet must remain clean, complete, and client ready.
  • C+S Metrics Reporting: It’s a 2023 report template that will be utilized for Quarterly Value Metrics.
  • Quarterly and Annual Metrics Reports: These reports are prepared for each quarter and for each year and contain all required CPUC metrics.

Some of the KPIs that the solution enabled included:

  • Training: Number of training events organized.
  • Registrant: Number of registrations that have occurred for a training event.
  • Attendees: Number of people who attended the training event.
  • Unique Attendees: Number of people who participated in the training event.
  • % Reg who attended: Percentage of people who completed registration and participated in the training session.
  • Local Govt Staff: Number of local government representatives who attended the training events.
  • Number of Surveys: Number of surveys that have been completed or submitted.
  • Number of Local Government Staff Indicating Increased Knowledge: Number of local government staff who indicated that the training effectively increased their knowledge.
  • Percentage of Survey Indicating Increase in Knowledge: Percentage of surveys where participants reported an increase in knowledge.

Outcomes 

The solution resulted in the achievement of the following outcomes for BayREN: 

  • Deeper and Accurate Understanding of the Program’s Performance: Automation of the data integration process and creation of a centralized data repository enabled efficient data access and analysis, reduced manual effort significantly, and eliminated data inconsistencies. In addition, the implementation of interactive data visualization tools, such as charts and graphs, enabled stakeholders to quickly grasp complex data and make better decisions based on it. All these led to the delivery of efficient, reliable, and accurate insights into various aspects of the Program.
  • Optimization of Training Delivery and Outreach Strategies at the Program and County Levels: Insights into the number of training sessions held, attendees, feedback scores received post-training, total resources allocated for sessions, duration or total hours of sessions enabled optimization of training delivery and outreach strategies, thereby enhancing participant engagement, attendance, and satisfaction.

About DiLytics 

DiLytics is a leading IT service provider, specializing in the domain of data analytics – Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Data Integration, Data Visualization and Predictive Analytics. The company has a presence in the US, Canada, and India and has undertaken multiyear, multimillion-dollar projects for several clients which is a testament to its capabilities and expertise in the data analytics domain.   

 

With 12+ years of existence, DiLytics has been a trusted partner for clients across 20+ industries and has established a strong record of collaborating with global clients in the public as well as commercial sectors. DiLytics brings a wealth of experience in the data analytics space: 10,000+ happy users, 100+ person-years of project experience, 100+ successful projects, and 30+ clients. With a comprehensive suite of 35+ service and solution offerings, it has empowered clients in their journey to make data-driven decisions.    

 

What sets DiLytics apart is its innovative Insight Solutions. DiLytics has a multitude of readymade, end-to-end, plug-and-play data analytics solutions developed under the name DiLytics Insight Solutions. These solutions are available in various areas, including Financial, HR, Procurement, Property Management Analytics, Compliance analytics, Grant, and PBCS insight. These solutions are designed to be implemented fast, often going live within a few weeks!  

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