Roland Risser

In the wake of increasing energy saving goals, longer program planning horizons, and greater flexibility in program design, CEE members are encountering both opportunities and challenges in supporting the energy management needs of their commercial and industrial customers.

Given recent trends in energy and the environment, industrial customers are increasingly recognizing the connections among energy performance, profitability, and future competitiveness. This environment has opened up opportunities for members to identify customers willing to make energy performance a management priority, to help those customers integrate energy into their management systems, and to position industrial programs to support continuous energy improvement. An additional opportunity lies in developing and supporting a significant culture change that encourages customers to routinely use energy management projects in their ongoing efforts to improve energy performance.

In 2008 the Industrial Program Planning Committee identified these energy management opportunities for CEE to play a centrally supportive role in this area. The challenges come in making the case to management to adopt recommendations coming out of energy audits, then supporting and funding implementation of these projects. In addition, industrial energy efficiency programs achieve most of their savings through custom projects, which require greater expertise to assess and implement. Premium efficiency motors, variable speed drives, and even lighting can be the source of modest savings through regular plant assessments, but greater savings, needed to meet program goals, are often found tied to important industrial systems and processes, which are more complex to analyze and evaluate.

CEE Role in Defining Energy Management
While energy management can include a whole host of measures and approaches, helping customers build systems to report and manage energy consumption and continuously improve energy performance are common themes, as efficiency program administrators come together through the CEE Industrial Program Planning Committee to define energy management. The consensus view is that energy management is an opportunity for programs, a way to identify lessons from early program efforts, and an avenue for exploring how existing energy management resources can be used.

A subcommittee of interested CEE members has formed to take stock of these developments and explore a potential role for CEE to support emerging energy management and continuous energy improvement programs across the United States and Canada. This year, the subcommittee has been busy tracking three levels of activity on energy management.

Program Level: Taking stock of current member program approaches and continuous energy improvement programs among commercial and industrial customers. Thus far, 13 member programs have been identified that support energy management, reflecting a wide range of objectives and approaches—from customer education and training, to management diagnostics and analysis, to helping customers draft energy management policies and action plans. To get a more in-depth perspective on member programs, the subcommittee has hosted a series of Webinars and workshops to learn more about innovative member energy management programs, such as those from BC Hydro, WI Focus on Energy, Ontario Power Authority, and the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance. Notes and presentations are available from CEE.

National Level: Monitoring the development of a U.S. Plant Energy Efficiency Certification Program. Through this program, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and others are working to develop an ANSI-accredited, voluntary program for industrial customers to measure energy consumption and validate energy intensity improvements over time. The three main building blocks of plant certification include:

• An energy management standard via ANSI-MSE 2000-2008, which the subcommittee has reviewed
• A series of energy assessment standards for common industrial systems, available for comment via ASME (and which the subcommittee is currently reviewing, particularly standards for pumping, compressed air, steam, and process heating)
• A measurement and verification protocol

While the current schedule calls for launch of this national plant certification program in late 2010, the subcommittee hopes that consistent support for the energy standards among programs will ameliorate a common challenge encountered by customers, the availability of technical experts to provide assessments.

International Level: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has approved the creation of a project committee to develop an international standard on energy management (ISO 50001). As the secretariat of ISO/PC 242, ANSI has formed a United States Technical Advisory Group (U.S. TAG) to develop a national consensus on energy management and communicate the U.S. position to ISO. Roland Risser of Pacific Gas and Electric, (who is also secretary of the CEE Board of Directors) is Chair of U.S. TAG, which offers a unique opportunity for programs to keep abreast of this development effort, to consider its implications to efficiency programs, and to provide input as appropriate. The future ISO 50001 standard provides a management framework for industrial plants and commercial facilities that could influence up to 60 percent of world energy use. During last year's January breakfast meeting, Risser and fellow U.S. TAG members briefed CEE members on the energy management standard, including its content and status. The ISO 50001 energy management standard is scheduled for publication by the end of 2010. Risser noted that efficiency program administrators could play a valuable role in alerting large commercial and industrial customers about the standard and positioning programs to help them adopt it.

The Year Ahead
Learning from members who have already taken an early lead, like BC Hydro, NEEA, and WI Focus on Energy, the CEE Industrial Program Planning Committee will further discuss how a program emphasis on energy management will impact industrial customers and industrial program design, along with developing recommendations and guidance for member programs as appropriate. It plans to define energy management from a program perspective, breaking it down into components that can be supported by typical member programs. It will also identify the context for energy management outside of programs, including the availability of supporting resources, which CEE can provide information about, in its role as a clearinghouse of energy management programs. Whether energy management will become a full-fledged CEE initiative is yet to be determined.

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