Steam, energy and management practises: how is the industry doing?

Panel: 3. Energy management: the nuts and bolts

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Author:
Ronald Vermeeren, Netherlands Enterprise Agency, The Netherlands

Abstract

Experiences across Europe show that the potential for energy efficiency improvement in general, and steam system efficiency improvement in particular is not yet fully utilised. When talking about steam system efficiency this includes, in addition to steam generation, steam distribution and steam use. The main barrier in achieving the full potential seems to be the gap identified between the identification of measures from energy audits and implementation in practice. The, EU-funded, Steam-Up project is aiming to close this gap. A first step to this is an industry-wide inventory carried out amongst 55 industrial companies and 45 energy auditors and energy consultants. The focus of the inventory was on energy efficiency with specific attention on steam use and efficiency, auditing and (energy-) management. The inventory was completed with a concise literature study on energy efficiency decision making and ways of influencing decision making. For the latter the focus was on non-energy-benefits and organisational- and behavioural change. Based on this inventory the Steam-Up project is designing interventions to facilitate the uptake of energy (and specifically steam) efficiency in industry in general and in (piloted-) companies more specifically. These interventions may vary from interventions on an organisation level (e.g. by supporting energy management implementation) to interventions on all relevant (individual) levels of the organisation. These interventions will be designed using (proven) models for behavioural and organisational change. This paper will focus on the main findings of the inventory and, based on that, will discus different intervention strategies that will be piloted in the framework of the project.