Top 9 Free Tools to Monitor and Optimize Energy Use in Industrial Facilities

Top 9 Free Tools and Resources to Monitor and Optimize Energy Use in Industrial Facilities

Energy waste can quietly drain budgets and stall sustainability goals — especially across multisite commercial and industrial operations. With our customers that have multiple facilities across the globe, standardization of processes and metrics is critical to effective energy management. For this reason, we have developed this list of tools that is meant to provide a lowest cost of implementation for our customers who are looking to monitor their energy usage.

Shown below are a list of powerful free tools and resources that can help you track, analyze, and reduce energy use effectively.

Whether you're managing a manufacturing plant, warehouse, or corporate office, this guide from Emergent Energy Solutions shares the best free tools and training resources to help your team cut energy costs and boost performance.

1. ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager

ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager allows you to benchmark energy and water usage across facilities. Widely used by commercial building operators, the platform lets you benchmark your building's performance against other buildings of similar type and size. It provides an Energy Star score based on the provided energy data and building size, and acts as the primary energy tracking tool used by cities and municipalities participating in benchmarking regulations.

2. DOE's EnergyPlus™

EnergyPlus™ is an advanced whole building energy simulation tool for analyzing HVAC, lighting, and building envelopes. Engineers, architects, and researchers use it to model both energy consumption — for heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting and plug and process loads — and water use in buildings.

Notable features include:

Integrated, simultaneous solution of thermal zone conditions and HVAC system response
Sub-hourly, user-definable time steps for interactions between thermal zones and the environment
Advanced fenestration models including controllable window blinds and electrochromic glazings
Component-based HVAC supporting both standard and novel system configurations

EnergyPlus is free, open-source, and cross-platform. Its development is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Building Technologies Office.

3. RETScreen® Expert (Viewer Version)

RETScreen® Expert is an energy project feasibility analysis and performance tracking software. The Clean Energy Management Software platform enables low-cost energy planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting. The Expert version is available in Viewer mode completely free-of-charge.

4. OpenEI Utility Rate Database

OpenEI Utility Rate Database lets you compare utility rates and incentives across U.S. utilities.

5. BuildingSync®

BuildingSync® provides a standardized format for sharing commercial building energy audit data.

6. NREL's System Advisor Model (SAM)

SAM is a free desktop application for techno-economic analysis of energy technologies. It can model photovoltaic systems, battery storage, concentrating solar power, wind power, marine energy, solar water heating, fuel cells, geothermal, and biomass combustion.

7. EcoEnergy Insights (Free Tools)

Cloud-based analytics for HVAC, lighting, and other systems with limited free access.

8. USGBC ARC Platform (Free Tier)

ARC Platform lets you track building performance data related to energy, waste, and indoor environmental quality.

9. CBECS Data Query Tool

CBECS lets you analyze historical energy usage data from U.S. commercial buildings for benchmarking.

Best Free Training Resources for Facility Managers

1. DOE Better Buildings Workforce Training

Better Buildings Training offers online courses and credential prep in energy management, HVAC, lighting, and building operations.

2. ENERGY STAR Training Center

ENERGY STAR Training provides free webinars and resources on benchmarking, upgrades, and best practices.

3. BOMI International Resource Center

BOMA/BOMI offers free whitepapers and operational guides for building and facility professionals.

4. FEMP Training Catalog

FEMP Training provides hundreds of no-cost technical courses in energy, water, and resilience.

These free tools and training resources are powerful assets for any facility or energy manager. Start with benchmarking, then build capacity within your team to act on data and deliver impactful savings across sites.

Need Help Getting Started? We help multisite organizations implement these tools, train facility teams, and build tailored action plans. Contact Emergent Energy Solutions to schedule a free strategy call.