Outsourcing Industrial Energy Management : Industrial Energy Efficiency Networks Provided As an Energy Service

摘要

Improving industrial energy efficiency (IEE) is of the outmost importance for both individual industrial companies, and governments. Improved IEE leads to reduced energy costs for companies, and improved sustainability through reduced CO2 emissions. Despite a large untapped potential for improved IEE, many energy efficiency measures (EEM) remain unexploited due to the existence of various barriers to IEE. One of the reasons for the large untapped IEE potential is the apparent low level of energy management practices in industry. A promising approach to stress improved IEE, and improved energy management practices, are industrial energy efficiency networks (IEEN), which in essence is a type of energy service where energy management is partly outsourced to a third party. There is a need to study how IEENs could and should be structured. Successful networks have been under operation in many different areas and disciplines. A large part of the organizational issues of previous research on networks, could thus be transformed to IEENs, e.g. in terms of transition theory, transformation etc. The aim of this book chapter is to present a general model for the management of IEEN.