Evaluating the Operational Performance in Cairo’s Public Administrative Buildings: Stock Characterisation and Typical Energy Use

As Egypt relocates its government to the New Administrative Capital, significant investments will be directed towards the renovation and adaptive reuse for Cairo’s existing public administrative buildings. Maximising the outcomes from these investments through energy efficiency measures offers a valuable opportunity, yet limited knowledge of building stock characteristics and operational energy performance can potentially hinder the formulation of informed and effective retrofit decisions. This study identifies and examines the stock subject to relocation, providing insights on building age, area, and common architectural characteristics. Applying K-Means clustering by age bands, the analysis identified three primary building groups within this stock: pre-1930 (Khedivial), 1960 s (modernist), and post-1980 (contemporary). Given that 1960 s buildings were found to represent the largest proportion of the stock, metered energy consumption data for nine buildings as such were collected and analysed. Annual energy data indicate that most buildings consume, on average, approximately half of a World Bank-adopted benchmark, offering novel projections of potentially diminished retrofit savings. Monthly energy consumption analysis highlighted seasonal energy profiles: a fixed low winter monthly energy use of about 5 % of the annual EUI, contrasting with peak summer monthly energy use of about 13 % of the annual EUI. These typical seasonal profiles helped with evaluating a typical energy end-use breakdown: about 40 % for cooling, and 60 % for lighting and electric equipment combined. Supporting effective retrofit decision-making, this study presented the first known characterisation of Cairo’s public administrative building stock, proposed a methodology for analysing metered energy consumption that counteracted data availability limitations, and provided preliminary estimates for energy breakdown by end-use that disentangled the aggregated metering for the fully electrified consumption in Cairo’s public administrative buildings.