Corporate Energy Efficiency Project

Description

Best fit: office buildings, hotels, hospitals, shopping centres, logistics and pharmaceutical warehouses, production plants and multi site corporate operations — anywhere the energy bill has to be traced to its real sources by measurement and the order of investment has to be set correctly.

A corporate energy efficiency project is a method rather than a product: measure, analyse, prioritise, implement, verify. Work that starts by replacing equipment usually starts in the wrong place, because where a site’s energy actually goes is not known until it is measured, and the assumed source rarely turns out to be the real one. For that reason the first deliverable of the project is not a quotation but a consumption picture.

The survey stage builds the load profile of the site: how consumption behaves through the day, through the week and across the seasons. The most instructive figure is the base load that continues to be drawn while the site is not working. Consumption that persists with no production points straight at systems that never shut down and equipment running without control. A bill alone cannot answer this, which is why sub metering by load group is installed beneath the main incomer.

Measures are not taken at random but in sequence. First the demand itself is reduced: leaks, insulation, operating hours, setpoints and equipment idling with no load. Then the conversion is made efficient: the equipment and, just as importantly, the way it is controlled. Then waste heat is recovered. Only then is on site generation considered. When this order is broken, investment in generation ends up sized to feed a demand that could have been removed, and comes out larger than it needed to be.

In motor, pump and fan systems the gain usually lies in the control method rather than in the machine. Setting flow by throttling a valve means producing the flow and then strangling it; speed control reduces the demand itself. The same logic applies to leak management on compressed air, to the balance between fresh air and heat recovery in ventilation, and to condensate return on steam. In most plants these items can be addressed before any capital intensive investment.

A project is not finished until it is verified. Consumption after implementation is normalised against variables such as weather, occupancy and production volume and then compared with the baseline; otherwise a mild winter or a drop in output simply looks like a saving. The payback period is recalculated from measured gains rather than promised ones. The metering set up is left in place after handover, because an efficiency gain that nobody owns is quietly given back over time.

Key Features

• On site energy survey based on measurement, with the plant load profile established
• Sub metering by load group and analysis of the base load
• Heating, cooling, lighting, motor and compressed air systems assessed separately
• Measures ranked from no cost operational changes through to capital intensive works
• Heat recovery and waste heat reuse opportunities examined
• Post implementation measurement with savings normalised against external variables
• Payback and return on investment updated from measured data

How to Choose

• Site type and operating regime: continuous, shift based or seasonal — savings potential depends on the regime as much as on the equipment.
• Existing metering: only utility bills, or sub meters already in place; where there is no measurement, the first step of the project is to install it.
• Weight of each energy stream: whether electricity or fuel dominates and which process consumes most — effort is concentrated on the largest item.
• Constraints: which measures can be applied without stopping production or service, the budget window and the acceptable payback period.
• Verification method: which variables the savings will be normalised against, and the comparison period defined from the start.
• Operational ownership: who follows the reporting, who acts when consumption drifts, and who keeps the metering after the project closes.

Get a free site survey and a quote for your project: (0501) 557 80 89 · bilgi@projenza.com