# BIDMC Load Profile — NREL ComStock Parquet Manual

> **Markdown report of a non-markdown source document.**
>
> | | |
> |---|---|
> | **Source** | `Shift Matlab Drive/Shift Matlab Drive/Energy_Managment/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/BIDMC_Parquet_Load_Data_Manual.docx` |
> | **Format** | Microsoft Word (.docx) |
> | **MD5** | `af1178d355dda935363046f04a64e34d` |
> | **Describes** | `89993-0.parquet` (2.37 MB) in the same folder |
> | **Owner** | Energy Management cluster |
> | **Status** | Current |
> | **Report generated** | 2026-07-25 |

## What the file contains

`89993-0.parquet` holds **a full year of simulated energy consumption** for a 500,000 sq ft
hospital building in Massachusetts. It was generated by NREL's **ComStock** simulation platform
using EnergyPlus and actual 2018 meteorological weather data (AMY2018) for the Boston climate.

Building **ID 89993** was selected as the best available public proxy for Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center based on:

- similar floor area (~500,000 sq ft),
- building date (late-1950s construction),
- HVAC system type (VAV chiller + gas boiler),
- climate zone.

This is the **baseline** scenario (`upgrade00`).

> [!IMPORTANT]
> This is **simulated stock-model data, not measured BIDMC data**. It is a proxy. The
> [Forecasting Requirements](../02-specifications/forecasting-requirements.md#21-inputs) flags
> real historical hospital load as the project's biggest data gap — this file is the current
> stand-in for it, not a resolution of it.

## File overview

| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| File name | `89993-0.parquet` |
| Building ID | 89993 |
| Source | NREL End-Use Load Profiles for US Building Stock (ComStock 2025) |
| Building type | Hospital |
| State | Massachusetts (Climate Zone 5A — Boston) |
| Floor area | 500,000 sq ft (46,450 m²) |
| Vintage / year built | 1946–1959 (built 1959) |
| Number of floors | 4 |
| File version | Upgrade 00 — Baseline |
| Time resolution | **15 minutes** |
| Total rows | 35,040 (full year 2018) |
| Time period | 2018-01-01 00:15 to 2019-01-01 00:00 |
| HVAC system | VAV chiller with gas boiler reheat |
| Heating fuel | Natural gas |

## Column reference

Each energy end use appears in **two forms** across the 64 columns: absolute consumption (kWh
per 15-minute interval) and intensity (kWh per sq ft per 15-minute interval). The intensity
columns are useful for scaling the data to BIDMC's exact floor area.

| Column name | Unit | Annual total | Peak (15-min) |
|---|---|---|---|
| `bldg_id` | — | 89993 (constant) | — |
| `timestamp` | date | 2018-01-01 to 2019-01-01 | — |
| `out.electricity.cooling.energy_consumption` | kWh | 1,025,061 | 210.14 |
| `out.electricity.fans.energy_consumption` | kWh | 1,042,572 | 131.76 |
| `out.electricity.interior_equipment.energy_consumption` | kWh | 3,247,485 | 170.15 |
| `out.electricity.interior_lighting.energy_consumption` | kWh | 1,597,696 | 118.15 |
| `out.electricity.pumps.energy_consumption` | kWh | 544,941 | 25.12 |
| `out.electricity.heat_recovery.energy_consumption` | kWh | 186,740 | 7.69 |
| `out.electricity.heat_rejection.energy_consumption` | kWh | 81,596 | 22.49 |
| `out.electricity.exterior_lighting.energy_consumption` | kWh | 107,751 | 6.69 |
| `out.electricity.water_systems.energy_consumption` | kWh | 153,266 | 4.51 |
| `out.electricity.refrigeration.energy_consumption` | kWh | 39,259 | 2.79 |
| `out.electricity.purchased.energy_consumption` | kWh | 8,026,366 | — |
| `out.electricity.total.energy_consumption` | kWh | 8,026,366 | — |
| `out.natural_gas.heating.energy_consumption` | kWh | 6,893,812 | — |
| `out.natural_gas.water_systems.energy_consumption` | kWh | 1,195,680 | — |
| `out.natural_gas.interior_equipment.energy_consumption` | kWh | 861,204 | — |
| `out.site_energy.total.energy_consumption` | kWh | 16,977,060 | — |

**All-zero columns:** `out.electricity.heating`, `out.electricity.pv`,
`out.district_cooling.*`, `out.district_heating.*`, `out.fuel_oil.*`, and `out.propane.*`. This
building uses natural gas for heating and has no on-site PV or district energy connections in
the baseline case.

> The absence of an `out.electricity.pv` signal is convenient rather than limiting: SHIFT
> supplies its own PV generation from the
> [PV hourly dataset](pv-hourly-dataset-manual.md), so the ComStock profile provides pure
> *demand* with no embedded generation to net out.

## Filling gaps in the existing datasets

These values are complementary to those in `hospital_communication_energy_system.csv` (see the
[BIDMC Datasets Manual](bidmc-datasets-manual.md)). Only the rows marked *New column* do not
exist in that CSV, but can be added.

| Parquet data | Maps to | How it's used |
|---|---|---|
| `electricity.interior_equipment` | Medical Equipment Power Usage (kWh) | Equipment load correlated with MIMIC clinical events |
| `electricity.cooling + fans + pumps` | HVAC Power Usage (kWh) | RL action target for demand shifting |
| `electricity.interior_lighting` | Lighting Power Usage (kWh) | Partially controllable — follows occupancy/shift schedule |
| `electricity.purchased` (hourly sum) | Total Power Usage (kWh) | RL environment state: total demand the agent must satisfy |
| `natural_gas.heating` | **New column** — Thermal Load (kWh) | Drives HVAC heating decisions; links to UCSD thermal storage data |
| All intensity columns (`*_intensity`) | **New column** — Load per sq ft | Normalization factor for scaling BIDMC to actual floor area |

## Overall energy statistics

### Annual summary

| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Total electricity purchased from grid | **8,026,366 kWh/year** |
| Total natural gas consumed | **8,950,696 kWh** equivalent/year |
| Total site energy (all fuels) | **16,977,060 kWh/year** |
| Energy use intensity (EUI) | **33.9 kWh/sq ft/year** |

At 8,026 MWh/year the building averages **≈ 916 kW** of continuous electrical demand.

### Electricity end-use breakdown

| End use | Annual (kWh) | Share of electricity |
|---|---:|---:|
| Interior equipment (medical devices, computers, plug loads) | 3,247,485 | **40.5%** |
| Interior lighting | 1,597,696 | 19.9% |
| HVAC fans | 1,042,572 | 13.0% |
| Cooling (chiller) | 1,025,061 | 12.8% |
| Pumps (HVAC circulation) | 544,941 | 6.8% |
| Heat recovery | 186,740 | 2.3% |
| Water systems | 153,266 | 1.9% |
| Exterior lighting | 107,751 | 1.3% |
| Cooling tower (heat rejection) | 81,596 | 1.0% |
| Refrigeration | 39,259 | 0.5% |

### Natural gas breakdown

| End use | Annual (kWh) | Note |
|---|---:|---|
| Space heating | 6,893,812 | Mostly in Boston winters |
| Service water heating | 1,195,680 | Hot water for clinical/kitchen use |
| Interior equipment (gas-fired) | 861,204 | Kitchen equipment, sterilizers |

## Practical notes

- **Resolution matches the forecasting spec, not the simulator default.** 15-minute resolution
  lines up with the `t−96`/`t−672` lags in the
  [PV forecasting inputs](../02-specifications/forecasting-requirements.md#11-inputs), but the
  [Simulator I/O Interface](../02-specifications/simulator-io-interface.md#timestep) defaults to
  hourly steps. Aggregating 4→1 is trivial; the reverse is not.
- **No critical/non-critical split.** ComStock reports by *end use*, not by clinical criticality.
  Deriving `L_crit` / `L_noncrit` requires the tier mapping in
  [Energy Flow and Balances](bidmc-ucsd-energy-flow-and-balances.md) or a proxy fraction — an
  open question the simulator sheet explicitly flags.
- **Natural gas is larger than electricity.** 8,951 MWh gas vs 8,026 MWh electricity. A
  hydrogen microgrid that only displaces *electricity* addresses under half of this building's
  site energy.

## Related

- [BIDMC Datasets Manual](bidmc-datasets-manual.md) — the clinical and synthetic-energy datasets this complements
- [BIDMC/UCSD Energy Flow and Balances](bidmc-ucsd-energy-flow-and-balances.md) — the load-tier model
- [Forecasting Requirements](../02-specifications/forecasting-requirements.md) — §2, hospital demand forecasting
- [Dataset Inventory](../06-data/dataset-inventory.md) — every data file in the repo