Energy & Emissions

The Energy Leader needs to organize four aspects of the organization's Strategic Energy Management System. I think of them as four interlocking puzzle pieces - People, Processes, Documents, and Hardware (or Projects). I already outlined the People aspect in Choosing an Energy Leader. So let me address the other three topics briefly.

1. Processes - This will vary depending upon the size of the company. That's right. Depending upon the size of the company. The amount of energy saved will vary depending upon your usage. But the degree you need to formalize your processes depends on how many people you have. More people, means more formal processes are needed to make sure they stick. At a minimum, here are the kinds of processes you are looking at:

   
   

   
   

   • Data Collection and Keeping - This is the heart of it, isn't it. The more you can automate this, the more effective it will be.

     
     

   • Management Reviews - Set a regular meeting for management review of energy use and your progress in reducing it. This gets it on the radar and provides a certain amount of management ownership before you ask for project funding. Let as many team members as possible make presentations on some rotating basis to ensure everyone gets visibility for their efforts.

     
     

   • Idea Harvesting and Selection - This is especially important if you are going to be offering financial incentives for suggestions. You'll need a simple and transparent way to select projects that will foster trust and participation.

     
     

     

     
     

   • Other Processes - If you are a larger firm, you will need processes to review and update your document set, ensure publicity for your efforts, audit your system for effectiveness, and other such managerial activities. Most large firms already have similar plans that can easily be adapted to energy.

     
     

   
   

2. Documents - As with the Processes, some of these aren't needed by smaller firms. But some that are needed by everyone are:

   
   

   
   

   • Energy Profile and Baseline - This is a bit technical, but not beyond most people's doing. Your energy profile is documentation of your energy usage as far back as you can get it. Add a chronological timeline of changes to your facility or manufacturing processes that may have affected your energy use. See if you can identify the change in your energy usage. Then, perhaps, the tough part. You are going to need a Performance Indicator. That is the most technical part of setting up your Energy Management System, and deserves a post of its own. I'll write about that next time.

     
     

   • Energy Goals - Here's a chance to really engage everyone. Solicit a goal from all personnel. Make it a simple percentage that everyone can identify with. Invite everyone to a discussion (or to a roving discussion if you have a large firm) and ask where they want to set the goal. Truly aggressive suggestions should be answered by some commitment from management as well to give the goal some credibility. (You can see where the Energy Leader's interpersonal skills come into play here.)

     
     

   • Energy Plan - Map out how to get to your goal. Involve as many voices as you can, but don't pussyfoot here. Set things on a timeline, develop a projected energy reduction profile, and get commitments. It's good to have a short term (maybe two-year) plan embedded in a long-term (ten year) plan.

     
     

   
   

3. Hardware - This is the fun part to the engineers amongst us, actually making a project happen. I won't go into a lot of detail here except to say that the Energy Leader should make sure that each project has a plan before seeking funding, and definitely before moving out on it. You need to show results. No matter how smart the guys in engineering are, and no matter how good a softball buddy he or she may be, hold them to a plan - task list, schedule, money - for your own good and the good of the program.

   
   

Next time I'll get to the nuts and bolts of developing your energy performance indicator. It's a little geeky, but it's important to understand.

Paul Birkeland lives in Seattle, WA, US, and develops Strategic Energy Management Systems for government, commercial, and industrial organizations through Integrated Renewable Energy.