Excellence in Energy Management
To go beyond mediocre energy performance and
implementing energy improvements only sporadically, many
leading companies have developed a more systematic
approach to energy management. The following guidelines
can help your facility to achieve continual improvements
over time, minimizing energy costs while enhancing
productivity.
- Obtain management support. At
the facility level, it is important to
gain the support of the site manager and
to leverage any energy management
support available at the corporate
level. Obtaining the site manager's
buy-in for a five-year energy goal could
be a good place to start.
- Develop an energy team. The
facility energy manager should have
overall responsibility for managing
energy use and costs at the facility.
Energy goals should ideally be included
in his/her performance plan and
compensation. Then in addition the site
energy manager should form an "energy
team," obtaining the support of other
key parts of the organization, including
production, finance/accounting,
procurement, maintenance, and
environmental health and safety. The
energy team should work together towards
the common goal of minimizing energy
costs while maintaining or enhancing the
facility's productivity.
- Assess performance and
opportunities. Most industrial
facilities have had at least a basic
energy audit to analyze energy
consumption and identify a few areas for
improvement. Several utilities in
Colorado offer assistance with more
detailed energy assessments, as does the
CIEC program. In addition leading
companies compare facilities' energy
performance with that of other similar
facilities to gauge the potential for
improvement. (Two options are to compare
your facility with other similar
facilities within your company, or to
try benchmarking using Energy Star.) To
identify opportunities, some companies
such as Johnson & Johnson and Frito-Lay
have developed lists of best practices
in specific areas.
- Establish goals and develop an
energy plan. If you are able to
obtain energy intensity data for other
similar facilities, then you can set
performance goals to gradually bring
your facility up to the level of the
best performers. Otherwise, a reasonable
goal is to shoot for a 10 percent
improvement in energy intensity over a
5-year period (or about 2% intensity
improvement per year). Developing a plan
for on-going energy improvements goes
hand in hand with developing a
reasonable energy goal. The plan should
start with projects that have already
been identified and evaluated, ranking
these by cost-effectiveness and/or ease
of implementation. The plan should be
updated periodically as new energy
projects are identified, and as new
process changes/improvements are planned
that open up doors to re-examining
process-related energy use.
- Implement energy plan and track
results. As projects are
implemented, it is very important to
measure energy and cost savings. This
can be done by installing temporary or
permanent sub-meters (natural gas or
electricity) to take before and after
measurements of consumption. Documenting
savings from specific projects will go a
long way towards obtaining management
support for financing of future energy
projects.
- Recognize achievements.
Building a successful program requires a
team effort, so it is important to
recognize the achievements of
individuals that played key roles in
implementing projects. In addition the
program should recognize its own overall
achievements by reporting to management
each year on total energy and cost
savings. This will help build support
for the energy program and make it
easier to obtain financing and other
support in the future.
These six principles are based on the U.S. EPA ENERGY
STAR program's
Guidelines for Energy Management. You can evaluate
your facility's energy management program using ENERGY
STAR's Facility Energy Assessment Matrix, and find
more information on ENERGY STAR's guidelines
here.
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