In the view of growing electricity prices and time-sensitive tariffs numerous vendors around offer on-site electricity generation and storage. Should your company do it? Are you in business of electricity generation? Prior to going into technical and financial details of different solutions, I suggest you ask yourself a more basic, strategic question: if you are [...]
We all agree that Energy Management is important, even C-levels agree. Still too often it's not done. Why is that? This 2003 article - Overcoming Barriers to Effective Energy Management in Industrial Settings - names several barriers which I list below with my comments : Lack of Organizational Commitment If senior management is not committed to [...]
In this post we shall conclude describing how 3M has achieved outstanding energy cost reduction results. These publication has resulted from interview with Andrew Hejnar, Energy Manager of 3M Canada. This post completes the story started in previous publications: Part 1: How does 3M take big energy decisions Part 2: Energy standards increase savings Part [...]
In this post we continue describing how 3M has achieved outstanding energy cost reduction results. These publication has resulted from interview with Andrew Hejnar, Energy Manager of 3M Canada. This post follows the previous publication: Part 1: How does 3M take big energy decisions 3M adheres to best practices to increase energy [...]
If you seek a list of low cost energy efficiency improvements in process energy management in manufacturing, then this post is for you. This post summarizes best practices for process energy management in selected industries as identified by Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) through an Energy Pathfinder Research Initiative. The goal of this project was to identify [...]
Managers and executives can benefit immensely from clarity about energy consumption and savings, as well as risk costly mistakes from its absence. Despite loud claims, most M&V systems create more confusion and delusion, than clarity. Here are recommendations on what to watch for in an M&V reports and software to avoid making costly investment mistakes. [...]
Corporations routinely require energy projects to meet a 2 year simple payback threshold, which is another way of requesting a 50% return. Same corporations rarely enjoy returns in excess of 10% in their core business. Are CFOs mean to energy projects, plain stupid, or what? - Unlikely. Slow thinkers do not make it to corner offices. [...]
Energy audit requires metered data. At least if client expects results that can be presented in the boardroom, not just general considerations. On the other hand, installation of meters takes time and money. On the third hand, if I had one, incentives on installation of meters are only available within M&T framework, which can logically [...]
What is the value of saved kWh at our plant? This post continues the discussion about the $value of kWh, started in What is kWh worth at your plant. In that post we talked about effect of operational changes on cost of energy. Today we will talk about how value of energy efficiency projects shows [...]
A trivial question, which does not have a simple answer without the context. Consider a plant that in the last month used 1,000,000 kWh to produce 10,000 units and paid $15,000 for electricity. Does kWh cost $0.15? Is energy cost per unit $1.5? Yes, No and Maybe. Cost or value of a kWh depends on [...]
