Working overseas on energy management projects: cultural and financial considerations

摘要

The author has had the privilege and pleasure of working in 20 different countries outside the US on energy management projects, working with owners, engineers, and financial people in developing energy performance contracts. Projects were predominantly industrial plants and larger medical facilities, and a few commercial/governmental complexes, of a size and operation which lent themselves to energy performance contracting because of the utility consumption magnitude. There are some major differences between methods, procedures, guidelines, ecological rules, and "rules of thumb" which make sense in North America and much of Western Europe in general, but do not in many other locales. Availability (or lack thereof) of financing, equipment selection, labor savings benefits, past operating practices, the historical procedures from which plant equipment was planned and originally built, and cultural and philosophical factors in a given country all contribute to the final equipment and system selection process for an energy performance contract. The twenty foreign countries in which the author has provided services include Finland, Russia, South Korea, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Portugal, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Canada, South America, Philippines, India, Thailand, Japan, China, Romania, and the Caribbean islands. These countries could be divided into Soviet Bloc countries, China, Japan, other Asian countries, West Europe, South America, South America, and then Canada (which is virtually transparent to US methods, procedures, pricing, practices and laws). The education levels of the plant personnel, makeup of staff, past investigative efforts by plant personnel into energy cost reduction opportunities, historical trends in utility costs, availability of fuels, past government regulations and restrictions on importing or taxing such technology, and the manner of operation of the facility all vary greatly with the historical background of try as well as the market issues. Working through these issues to secure an implementation contract, and seeing through the implementation and acceptance testing of the final systems given the local conditions, is explored.