Energy program with four tools

I will explain below an energy program that I propose in which we act on several areas. The final intention is always the same: find and execute energy saving projects.

In this post I will make a summary of each of them but later I will write separate articles of each one.

Energy map

The objective is to have the information and location of the energy consumption. It is about having a map with all the energies that are used:

• Electricity.
• Gas.
• Heating.
• Etc.

We need to have the minimum number of meters that give a valuable information about the consumption in the different areas in which we have divided our map. The borderlines of this map are the limits of the company’s location with its production and office space.

An economic evaluation must be made of the number of meters and their cost. You have to reach a point where you sacrifice energy coverage and accuracy but that it is economically feasible.

The energy map let us know how is the distribution of the total energy, which is what we know from the supplier’s invoices. This distribution allows us to focus on the main energy potentials.

Later, we can build energy dashboards with the different energies grouped by consumers (areas, buildings, etc.). The dashboards allow detecting deviations in consumption. These will be our potentials. Finally we will try to design an energy project that corrects the deviation.

Inventory list

The objective is to disclose potentials that come from differences in equipment efficiency.

In this case we will make a detailed list of the machinery that consumes energy. Apart from identifying the device, manufacturer and model, we will note its characteristics. It is important to register the power consumed and its theoretical efficiency. This last piece of information sometimes is difficult to find among the technical documentation. If we only have the power, at least we have a rank to prioritize saving actions.

With the theoretical efficiency we can establish comparisons, determine potentials and then try to implement the energy saving projects.

To know the order of magnitude of the project (redesign or adjustment) we can use the information mentioned in the post Fine tuning or redesign, part 1 and part 2.

Short term metering

This tool also aims to discover potentials that come from differences in equipment efficiency.

When we have few meters we can use portable meters and measure an equipment or a group of it to determine what is its current efficiency and compare with its maximum efficiency. We can use the tricks of the energy detective. Again, we will determine potentials and later try to implement projects.

The measurements taken during the defined time will be the baseline to measure the savings achieved with a project.

To know the order of magnitude of the project (redesign or adjustment) we can use the information mentioned in the post Fine tuning or redesign, part 1 and part 2.

Technical projects

The objective is to discover projects based on efficiency improvement, change of operating parameters or reduction of operating time.

To this section belong all those projects developed by project managers thanks to their know-how. It is usually the engineering or auxiliary services department of the company.

The technical experts in each of the energies who have the information and experience necessary to determine improvement projects. They use the facilities information that is usually also maintained by them..

Energy workshops

The target of this tool is usually the reduction of operating time or the change of operating parameters.

The stakeholders are the final users of the energy. In many cases, awareness-raising and training must be carried out through specific workshops.

Although these people are not responsible for the performance of the production and distribution of energy, they are responsible for its use. They are also those who know better the production or internal process of the company. Thanks to them you can check if the time of use of the energy can be reduced. They can also help determine if the level of a process parameter (temperature, flow rate, ventilation, etc.) can be reduced and therefore the energy consumption.

These five proposed tools are part of an energy program.  The responsible of the administration is the energy manager.

It is recommended that this program is transferred to the energy management system in the form of procedures, instructions, forms, etc. In this way we make it sustainable and improve over time with the revisions.

When it comes to finding and filtering the energy projects that cover the potential discoveries we will use the process that I described in my previous article, the process of finding saving projects.