Energy Management Principles
Energy management refers to the management of energy consumption with the intention being to save energy. This means improving the efficiency of energy use and to promote efficient use of plant, equipment, lighting, vehicles etc.
Benefits of Energy Management include
Reducing the CO2 emissions to the atmosphere.
Saving money.
Providing a more comfortable working environment.
Identify all the energy costs.
Improving productivity and profitability.
EECA have produced a manual to help the Energy Manager set up an Energy Management Programme. To download click here:
Energy Management Programme part 1 
Energy Management Programme part 2
Where to start?
Energy management involves a number of steps as outlined below:
Appoint an Energy Manager.
Obtain energy consumption data and cost (invoices).
Identify equipment using energy.
Create an Energy Balance.
Identify areas of savings.
Determine costs to produce savings.
Verify pricing plan and rates.
Appoint an Energy Manager
It will be advantageous to appoint an Energy Manager. It is not necessary that this person dedicates all the hours of work to this activity so it can be combined with any other function or the service could be outsourced. The Energy Manager will need strong support from Management however.
The Energy Manager will be the responsible for:
Organising the data collection.
Doing the data analysis.
Monitoring the energy supply.
Identifying the energy saving opportunities.
Proposing the actions that will be carried out.
Motivating the staff to follow their recommendations.
Analysing and reporting the results.
Informing the staff, the General Manager, the Departmental Managers, the Financial Manager...
Promoting energy management.
The skills the Energy Manager should have:
They should be familiar with the office or plant activities.
They should have good communication skills.
They should be an open-minded person.
They should be able to carry on all the above mentioned tasks.
Rather than the Energy Manager working alone, it makes sense to have an Energy Committee in a large building or company with high levels of energy consumption. For small buildings or companies only an Energy Manager with the support of the General Manager is enough.
The Energy Committee can comprise:
General Manager
Energy Manager
Departmental Managers
Financial Manager
Obtain energy consumption data and cost
Obtain the energy consumption and costs from monthly invoices for electricity, gas and other fuels. Ideally a minimum of 12 months is required, 24 months would be better. The costs will include both a fixed charge and a charge per unit of energy. Both these charges are required to obtain an accurate energy cost.
Enter all this data into an Excel spreadsheet to calculate the delivered energy cost for each fuel on a monthly basis.
Produce a bar graph of energy consumption to see if there is a seasonal pattern, or if something very odd is happening such as a large consumption peak during a particular month.
The sample graph above shows an increase of electricity use over winter which could indicate winter heating.
Identify equipment using energy
Make a list of all the equipment using energy including lighting, office equipment, plant etc.
Identify the amount of energy each piece of equipment uses. Most will have a name label that states its wattage, e.g. an electric heater might have a label with 2400W printed on this (note 2400W = 2.4kW).
Calculate or estimate the number of hours that the equipment is being used.
Create an Energy Balance
By using the list created above, multiply the wattage by the number of hours per year each item of equipment is used to find the total energy consumption for each item. The total of all energy consumption should be close to the actual billed amount of energy. If not, have a close look at the hours the equipment is being used, the hours the lights are turned on etc. and make some adjustments to get the best estimate possible.
Total the consumption of similar equipment, such as lighting, air conditioning, refrigeration etc.
The chart quickly shows where the most energy is being used,
and this can be used to prioritise where the most savings can be made.
Identify areas of savings
Clearly air conditioning and lighting are the largest users of energy in the above chart. This would be the first area to look at when looking for savings.
Air conditioning may be turned on for more hours than necessary, and time clocks could be fitted to prevent this.
Occupancy sensors could be used for lighting to turn lights off when nobody is in the room etc.
Look down the list of equipment and identify the largest users of energy and start with these items first to use this equipment more efficiently.
Determine Cost to produce savings
Some saving initiatives cost nothing such as turning the lights off when leaving a room, so energy saved is an instant saving to the company.
Other initiatives will cost money, and depending on how much it costs and how much can be saved, decisions have to be made if it is worthwhile to make the changes. A simple payback calculation can be made by dividing the cost of the initiative by the estimated savings to produce the number of years required to pay for the initiative.
For example, it may cost $600 to install 2 occupancy sensors to control the lights in a large room; estimated savings are $350 per year. The simple payback time is $600 / $350 = 1.7 years.
Considerations should also be made when replacing old equipment. An example would be when a motor has burned out and needs to be replaced. Energy efficient motors may cost $500 more than to rewind the old burned out motor, however the energy saving of this efficient motor running 20 hours per day will save more than $500 in the first year, making the new motor the best choice. Please note that rewound motors lose approximately 5% efficiency when compared to new factory wound motors.
Verify Pricing Plan and Rates
Over the years electricity accounts have arrived in your letterbox, and they have just been paid
However your business may have changed and your energy use may also have changed.
Two areas of savings should be looked at here:
1. Is your business on the right plan? There are different charges for different levels of use, these are the capacity charges. Does your business need that three phase electricity supply, just because it was in the building when you moved in? Do you need a 200amp supply when a 60 amp supply will do fine? Reducing your capacity will reduce your monthly electricity account. Are you doing a lot of work at night? Plans are available that provides cheaper rates for night users of electricity.
2. Are you buying the cheapest energy available? Different energy retailers have different charges, and there may be an opportunity to save on your fixed and variable energy charges. After you have worked out your annual usage and costs, you can contact the electricity retailers and discuss their charging options.
Energy retailers currently operating in the Rotorua area are (in alphabetical order):
Bay of Plenty Electricity www.bope.co.nz
Contact Energy www.contactenergy.co.nz
Empower www.empower.co.nz
Energy Online www.energyonline.co.nz
Genesis Energy www.genesisenergy.co.nz
Mercury Energy www.mercury.co.nz
Meridian Energy www.meridianenergy.co.nz
TrustPower www.trustpower.co.nz
If you are an Energy Retailer operating in the Rotorua area and you are not listed here, please e-mail us your details for consideration:
info@energychampion.co.nz
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