To persuade your organization to commit itself to a program of investment in energy efficiency, you need to demonstrate:
• The size of the energy problem it currently faces
• The technical and good housekeeping measure available to reduce waste
• The predicted return on any investment
• The real returns achieved on particular measures over time.
The need for investments in energy conservation can arise under following circumstances
• For new equipment, process improvements etc.
• To provide staff training
• To implement or upgrade the energy information system
Criteria
Any investment has to be seen as an addition and not as a substitute for having effective management practices for controlling energy consumption throughout your organization.
Spending money on technical improvements for energy management cannot compensate for inadequate attention to gaining control over energy consumption. Therefore, before you make any investments, it is important to ensure that
• You are getting the best performance from existing plant and equipment
• Your energy charges are set at the lowest possible tariffs
• You are consuming the best energy forms – fuels or electricity – as efficiently as possible
• Good housekeeping practices are being regularly practiced.
When listing investment opportunities, the following criteria need to be considered:
• The energy consumption per unit of production of a plant or process
• The current state of repair and energy efficiency of the building design, plant and services, including controls
• The quality of the indoor environment – not just room temperatures but indoor air quality and air change rates, drafts, under and overheating including glare, etc.
• The effect of any proposed measure on staff attitudes and behaviour.
Energy Proposals Vs Other Competitive Proposals
One of the most difficult problems which many energy managers face is justifying why their organization should invest money in increasing its energy efficiency, especially when there are other, seemingly more important priorities for the use of its capital.
• Organization typically give priority to investing in what they see as their core or profit-making activities in preference to energy efficiency
• Even when they do invest in saving energy, they tend to demand faster rates of return than they require from other kinds of investment.
Investment Appraisal
Energy manager has to identify how cost savings arising from energy management could be redeployed within his organization to the maximum effect. To do this, he has to work out how benefits of increased energy efficiency can be best sold to top management as,
• Reducing operating /production costs
• Increasing employee comfort and well-being
• Improving cost-effectiveness and/or profits
• Protecting under-funded core activities
• Enhancing the quality of service or customer care delivered
• Protecting the environment