Can we improve energy performance if we can't quantify it?

Panel: 3. Energy management: the nuts and bolts

Authors:
Luis Marques, GEN Europe, Spain
Liam McLaughlin, GEN Europe
Marco Matteini, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
Andrea Lopez, GEN Europe

Abstract

How can an organization realistically move in the direction of improving its energy performance if it cannot measure it? The accepted and widely used methodologies based on specific energy consumption (SEC) are not effective in helping to know if organizations are achieving energy savings or not. In many countries there are legal requirements for companies to report their SEC as a measure of energy efficiency improvement. In the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) it is an explicit requirement. These SEC requirements and practices by many governments, agencies and energy professionals are de facto supporting the use and spread in organizations/companies of ineffective methodologies to measure energy performance and savings. This paper proposes a practical methodology to allow organizations to be able to monitor and measure energy performance, energy savings and associated carbon emissions, differentiating those attributable to energy efficiency investments from improved operational practices. The methodology, based on multivariate regression, normalizes each energy use accounting for every significant relevant variable. This paper has been developed based on the authors’ experiences in projects in Europe and within the Industrial Energy Efficiency Programme of the Energy Branch of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), which currently covers 17 countries. These cases confirm that SEC cannot be used as meaningful energy efficiency indicator in any but a tiny minority of industries. SEC does not account for the baseload and for all relevant variables that affect energy consumption. SEC can show not only non-precise results, but contrary results if you compare it with an effective indicator. The use of effective energy performance indicators is essential to show and achieve real improvements in energy efficiency and must be one of the necessary technological and behavior changes that organizations around the world need to introduce.