Last year CEE established a new committee to identify strategic opportunities for members to enhance the effectiveness of their industrial programs. During a recent panel session Bryan Warren, senior engineer at Southern California Gas Company (SCG), described how his company is using a collaborative approach to enhance the energy-performance of its industrial customers while meeting its annual energy efficiency goals.

Gas Programs Growing
National opportunities for gas efficiency in the industrial sector are growing as prices for natural gas continue to rise and new programs in the United States and Canada come into play, making way for new markets. As a result, gas programs are gaining momentum. According to the CEE Energy Efficiency Programs Report, U.S. budgets for natural gas efficiency programs increased 68 percent from $248 million in 2006 to $416 million in 2007. One goal of the Industrial Program Planning Committee is to establish model program approaches for members to incorporate into their natural gas efficiency programs for industry.

According to DOE, the industrial sector represented 37 percent of total U.S. natural gas consumption, or 5,641 billion cubic feet in 2002. During the CEE panel session, SCG’s Warren cited an EIA report indicating that demand for natural gas in the United States is outstripping domestic production by 15 percent.

For SCG, the commercial and industrial sector represents only five percent of its total customer base (5.6 million), but consumes approximately 40 percent of the total volume of natural gas delivered (946 billion cubic feet). Most of the natural gas is consumed by large industrial customers such as petroleum refiners, food processors, pulp and paper plants, and primary metal manufacturers. Process heating, boilers and feed stock are the most common uses. Like many efficiency program administrators, Bryan explained that he is facing steadily rising gas savings goals.

Industrial End User Efficiency Program
To meet these goals, SCG developed the Industrial End User Efficiency Program for large industrial customers (using 500,000 therms per year). Under this program, SCG provides steam and process heating assessments, on-site technical training, combustion efficiency analysis, and training to help customers quantify and present the potential benefits of efficiency projects to senior management. The program is delivered using a team consisting of SCG account executives, SCG industrial services technicians, and customer engineering staff.

To enhance effectiveness, the Industrial End User Efficiency Program incorporates resources from a number of agencies including DOE and the California Energy Commission (CEC). For instance, SCG employs a number of DOE assessment tools, including the Process Heating Assessment and Survey Tool (PHAST) and the Steam System Assessment Tool (SSAT).

The PHAST is used to perform an energy or heat balance on selected equipment, namely furnaces, in order to identify and reduce nonproductive energy use.

The SSAT allows analysts to develop approximate models of real steam systems enabling them to quantify the magnitude—energy, cost, and emissions-savings—of key potential steam improvement opportunities. SCG has found both tools to be a credible and consistent way to understand thermal performance and to identify efficiency measures.

To conduct energy assessments, SCG uses qualified specialists who have been trained by DOE to use the PHAST and SSAT tools. CEC has three DOE-trained qualified specialists on staff that can assist SCG and other utility efficiency programs in the state to conduct industrial energy assessments. CEC also actively coordinates the delivery of plant energy assessments sponsored by DOE through the Save Energy Now Initiative among industrial customers, efficiency program administrators and DOE staff. Finally, CEC makes financial assistance available for qualifying projects resulting from the assessments.

In addition to supporting assessments, SCG has incentive programs available for qualifying equipment, such as steam traps, insulation projects, and boiler-efficiency measures. SCG’s technical staff and account reps also work to identify custom projects. Finally SCG actively collaborates with CEC and DOE to host industrial customer educational sessions in order to introduce gas-efficiency opportunities and provide training on DOE tools.

This year, the Industrial Program Planning Committee will continue to explore model approaches for industrial gas efficiency programs, like those of SCG. In particular, it will be assessing opportunities to develop standard approaches for programs related to process heating, steam, and combustion efficiency. Assessing the benefits of DOE-sponsored diagnostic tools, assessments, and training will undoubtedly be an important part of this exploration as well as identifying targeted opportunities for programs to apply them. To join the committee, please contact Senior Industrial Program Manager Ted Jones.

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