With the rising cost of energy and concerns about the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on the climate, energy audits are becoming an increasingly important tool for sustainability-minded businesses. Energy audits can range from a simple facility walkthrough and review of electricity bills to a comprehensive review of energy consumption by individual pieces of equipment, processes and load variations by day and by season. The nature and complexity of the energy audit will also differ for an office building versus an industrial facility. For energy audits of all complexities, the goal is to identify how energy is used and the most effective way to reduce consumption in order to increase the sustainability of the business, both environmentally and economically.

There are several benefits that can be realized by performing even the most basic type of energy audit. By understanding how much electricity is used and how much is spent on it, a facility not only gains a consciousness of the impact of energy usage on the bottom line, but also then has a baseline to identify the impact of changes in operations on energy consumption. A basic energy audit can also serve as a way to help identify whether a more detailed audit is warranted and which areas deserve further investigation.

A more comprehensive energy audit can provide a wealth of information regarding consumption at a facility; however, the audit can also reach unmanageable proportions if boundaries and goals are not clearly defined. An industrial facility of even medium size can contain hundreds of motors, pumps, fans, compressors, process equipment and other devices with multiple variables affecting power consumption. On the other hand, the energy-consuming devices at an office will be relatively few and lack variety. In addition to production related usage, many parts of the country experience high heating or cooling demand with the varying seasons. If a baseline energy audit identifies that heating or cooling costs are a significant portion of the site electricity consumption, attention may need to be focused on building insulation, air infiltration or perhaps better insulation on hot or cold process vessels.

One of the overlooked benefits of an energy audit is to identify the impact of past process changes and conservation efforts on the facility’s consumption. A facility that has the ability to perform an energy audit and create a consumption profile over the past three to five years has the potential to learn a great deal about how specific changes impact energy usage. For example, if there has been a conscious effort to reduce consumption through employee conservation programs or changes in lighting, being able to look back to before the changes were made and also at consumption after the changes occurred can provide support for the efforts of the site energy conservation champion or team. If the site maintenance team removed a group of pumps or compressors that were nearing end of life and replaced them with new models, once again, knowing how much energy was consumed before and after the change may identify that a savings was realized due to a change made for maintenance reason. Even though the primary reason for the equipment replacement was operations related, few would argue with the benefits of being able to show that you also saved energy and money.

One of the keys to sustainable business is awareness of how your facility uses the resources that are available. Even if energy consumption at a facility stays constant, with the cost of energy on the rise, the amount spent on energy will continue to rise. Fortunately, for many facilities, energy consumption also presents the greatest opportunity for savings if steps towards conservation are taken. A higher cost of energy also translates into a faster return on investment for energy conservation projects, but the key is to be able to identify where the greatest opportunities for savings are and to be able to show the results of your efforts. Positive results when it comes to energy conservation efforts are not only appreciated by those in charge of ever tightening budgets, but also your environmentally-minded stakeholders. Performing an energy audit is a great first step towards highlighting your past efforts as well as identifying where to focus your attention in the future.

One more benefit to performing an energy audit is that it also happens to be a necessary part of developing a greenhouse gas emissions inventory. As we will see next month, developing a greenhouse gas emissions inventory is not only an important part of operating a sustainable business, but it is becoming increasingly likely that it will be a necessary component for ensuring regulatory compliance.