Moving from Project to a culture of Continuous Improvement - Role of Utility Incentive programs

摘要

It has been widely accepted now that any facility without an energy management program cannot get sustainable energy savings. While some of the large manufacturing companies have implemented such program and benefitting from the same. It is the small and midsized company that lacks the resource to implement such programs. Despite having significant energy efficiency potential, there are several key barriers that hinder the ability to achieve energy savings at small and midsized industrial facilities, such as lack the capital budget to self-finance energy efficiency investments, High ratio of transaction costs (i.e., conducting preliminary and detailed audits and establishing MV protocols) to total project costs hinders the cost effectiveness of deals; Lack of internal human resources to identify, execute and verify energy conservation/efficiency projects. Various influencers like Utility Programs, Technology innovation and new breed of energy analysis tools are acting as enablers in moving up companies in the Energy Management Continuum. This paper tries to share some case studies from Ontario Canada on how companies are moving from projects to implementing a culture of continuous improvement. Example are taken from a Stationary product manufacturing plant. The manufacturing plant was losing market share and therefore cost reduction was very critical. The company enrolled a Shared Energy Manager (Roving Energy Manager- REM) which is a part of Ontario saveONenergy Progam to provide assistance in reducing the energy cost. This service was at no cost to the company. The REM worked with the team and identified opportunities. The company decided to focus on operational measures. It also implemented some low cost measures like installation of motion sensors, BAS recommissioning etc.