DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH ENERGY YOU WASTE?

Kevin Jackson –Strategic Solutions Director - eEnergy

It is true that every organisation wastes energy. It is also true that few organisations measure how much energy they waste. The amount of energy wasted by organisations can be around 30%, but the figures will vary for each and every site. Despite organisations having to keep detailed records of energy consumption and more recently the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions resulting from the consumption, there is no requirement to report on energy waste.

SO COULD YOUR ENERGY WASTE BE 30% OF YOUR CONSUMPTION?

Well, yes it could!

If you consider a day / night tariff, the lower charging rate for night units is often charged between midnight and 7am (there are slight regional and tariff variations.) with the remaining 17 hours of day rate. If an appliance was left on for a full 24 hours rather than the 17 hours of day time use required, then the wasted energy would be nearly 30%.

7 hours of wasted energy / 24 hours = 29.2% energy waste

So if your consumption at night is more than 20% of your total daily consumption, it could be that you are leaving things on overnight, unknowingly. However, this is not the only area where energy is wasted and not all energy is wasted at night or out of hours

How many times have you seen lights switched on when not needed or not switched off when finished with? How many times is equipment switched on ‘just in case’ it is going to be required? There are many other examples. Put simply, energy waste is consuming energy at any time in any form when it can be avoided.

SO HOW DO WE START TO UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH ENERGY WE WASTE?

One of the easiest and simplest ways to start identifying how much energy you waste is to look at the insight provided by your half-hourly electricity data. One year’s half-hourly data will provide 17,520 meter readings i.e one read for every half an hour of every day, even Christmas Day. You can then compare periods with each other.

• Last year’s consumption with this year’s consumption

• Last winter vs this winter or last summer vs this summer

• Last month’s vs this month or last

December vs this December

• Last week with this week or even each day against each other.

Note: normalising for working hours, activity and weather may be required

When profiling energy we often look at periods of consumption within a day to identify energy waste. Terms such as baseload, maximum demand and shoulders are used to segment the consumption for comparison.

• Baseload – the 24/7 energy that is used all day every day

• Highest demand – the maximum amount of energy used in a period

• Open shoulder – the period from initial operation to daily BAU

• Closed shoulder – the period from starting to close down to baseload consumption (often at the end of a BAU day)

Comparing baseload, demand and shoulders for different periods is a great way to start estimating how much energy you waste. i.e. If you could achieve the lowest baseload for a single day for all the other days of the year, how much would this save you?

Once you have determined how much energy you waste, then you can determine what actions you need to take and how much you are prepared to invest to eliminate it.

Eliminating energy waste is often approached by addressing one of three measures.

• People – everyone is an energy manager and with awareness they can stop energy waste

• Controls – energy controls such as set points and time clocks need to be managed

• Equipment – equipment with higher energy efficiency ratings will reduce waste

These measures are then prioritised by using a simple cost-reward matrix grouping the savings into no cost, low cost and capital cost investment.

• No cost – these are often people or control related achievable as part of BAU

• Low cost – these are activities that be achieved from within year budgets

• Capital cost – projects that will require funding from a CAPEX budget

SO WHAT HAVE WE LEARNT FROM THE ABOVE?

• Everyone wastes energy and 30% energy wastage is definitely possible Identifying energy waste is simple and can be done using existing half-hourly data Waste elimination often addresses three measures, people, control and equipment

• Waste elimination activity can be prioritised into no-cost, low cost and capital cost.

SO WHAT NEXT?

eEnergy believe that reaching Net Zero should be both possible and profitable for all organisations. Eliminating energy waste is a great way to kick-start your Net Zero journey. Our MY ZeERO intelligent monitoring platform measures and reports on energy, cost and carbon at circuit level in real time to help identify energy waste. So, if you’re ready to start measuring your energy waste and identifying savings, we are ready to help you take the next step.

To learn more about how eEnergy can help you eliminate energy waste, reduce your costs and carbon emissions visit www.eenergy.com