Supported by EIE/07/SI2.466702

BESS - Benchmarking and Energy management Schemes in SMEs

Energy auditing

To identify energy saving opportunities in your business it is highly recommended to conduct an energy audit. An energy audit quantifies trends of current energy use and equivalent greenhouse gas emissions and related costs, and makes recommendations for energy efficiency improvements. The scope of an energy audit can vary a lot and can include an entire building or plant, or energy use associated with a specific process. An energy audit provides the baseline of your organisation’s current energy use.

A first step for a (small) company with no or little information about its energy consumed is to start using a form of energy bookkeeping. An energy bookkeeping tool is included for that purpose.

The work undertaken during an audit may include:

· investigating the usage of all types of energy consumed and energy using equipment within the building, complex or plant;

· identifying the energy usage of all major heating and cooling applications and its percentage against total energy use;

· identifying cost-effective measures to improve the efficiency of energy use;

· estimating the potential energy savings, indicative budget costs and payback periods for each recommended action and

· reviewing energy management strategies, including monitoring systems and evaluation process.

An energy audit can be conducted by the energy manager who has been trained and has expertise in carrying out energy audits, or by hiring an energy auditing consultant.

When analysing energy saving options you can benefit from the lists to be found in the measure lists section of the dartboard, the text on good housekeeping and the references mentioned in the best practices and case studies.

As data collection tool BESS Energy Audit Data Collection sheet can be used.

Results of an Energy Audit

The results of an energy audit need to be compiled into a clear and concise energy report. Some of the key elements include:

• executive summary with recommendations in a priority order, and estimates of their implementation costs and payback periods;
• relevant plant and process data;
• equipment data with measurements or estimates of the energy consumption for individual plant items;
• actual energy consumption records;
• energy use analysis in graphical form;
• details of energy efficiency improvements;
• comparison of actual consumption with analysis of estimated results from recommended actions; and
• recommendations to include energy management strategies such as monitoring systems and review process.

To make an energy audit worthwhile, the recommendations from the audit report need to be incorporated into your energy management action plan. The types of initiatives that could come from an audit report include:

• changes to operational procedures;
• review of maintenance as it affects efficient use of energy;
• modification or replacement of existing plant and/or equipment;
• further in-depth studies of potential to reduce energy use of particular plant or processes; and
• a commitment to ongoing training and information dissemination to increase awareness among staff.

To make an energy audit worthwhile, the feasible recommendations from the audit report and in particular the agreed energy saving options should be documented in the energy action plan.

Click here for a template for elaborating an energy action plan

You can click here for more detailed information on different types of energy audits and the energy audit data collection sheet

(this link goes to the introduction text of the section “Energy audits” of the full E-learning version)