INTRODUTION TO ENERGY MASTER PLANNING: What It Is - And What It Isn't

摘要

Facility and energy managers are hungry for guidance to help them develop a long-term approach to energy and cost savings. At the same time, upper management now has a greater awareness of energy issues and could be open to the idea of integrating energy management with overall business operations. The process for reaching such goals is energy master planning. Common sense though this may seem, energy master planning is seldom practiced in the US and is often misunderstood. It is, however, a highly evolved discipline in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Awareness of this discipline and adaptation of existing international models to US conditions are now being fostered by the Energy Master Planning Institute (EMPI), a nonprofit organization incorporated in 2002 (www.EMPInstitute.org). The energy master plan is a business-planning document with business goals - not just a list of energy efficiency measures to improve operation of existing equipment. Going beyond a conventional upgrade, where a 2- to 3-year timeframe is often dictated by a commercial building owner's financial constraints, the energy master plan can guide customers in longer range planning of energy cost minimization as part of their total facility maintenance, management, and design. Such a plan moves beyond the boundaries of traditional engineering to include M&V, energy procurement, energy-related equipment purchasing, staffing and training, communications, and business target setting.