Abstract
Past research has shown that energy efficiency implementation in manufacturing can yield additional, quantifiable benefits in areas such as maintenance, production and environmental performance. However, these types of benefits don’t often get identified or estimated during energy efficiency assessments on industrial plants or systems. In addition, these types of benefits are often omitted from conventional performance metrics, leading to overly modest payback calculations and an imperfect understanding of the impact of energy efficiency in manufacturing. If the non-energy related or multiple benefits of energy efficiency measures were to be estimated with good certainty in industrial energy assessments, the true magnitude of energy efficiency measures could be understood, leading to better and more accurate return on investment estimates for energy efficiency projects. According to the IEA report “Capturing the Multiple Benefits of Energy Efficiency (2014),” the monetary value of non-energy benefits stemming from industrial energy efficiency implementation could be in the range of 40% to 50% of the value of energy savings per measure, which could lower energy-efficiency project paybacks by more than half.
In order to integrate the potential multiple benefits of energy-efficiency investments in energy efficiency assessments, these benefits need to be identified and quantified during energy efficiency assessments. To help achieve this an effort is underway to develop a training platform to enable companies and individuals who perform energy assessments to include multiple benefits of energy efficiency in project evaluations. This platform will include tools to analyze energy-saving projects, training workshops, and communications techniques and materials to provide the knowledge base to effectively integrate multiple benefits in the investment evaluations of energy efficiency measures. By integrating multiple benefit analyses in the energy assessments and assessment reports it is expected that the business case for energy efficiency will be bolstered leading to greater implementation of energy efficiency projects in manufacturing. This paper will discuss previous research showing the multiple benefits of energy efficiency in manufacturing and the analytical and communications framework that will enable the integration of multiple benefits in energy efficiency assessments.
