Best Practice Guide

Food and Beverage Growers and Processors

Planning an Energy Program

Energy Audits

An energy audit first identifies how energy is used in a facility, and then recommends ways to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy costs. In practice, there is wide variance among the different levels of energy audits available. Or, as Albert Thumann writes in the Handbook of Energy Audits, "There is a direct relationship to the cost of the audit (amount of data collected and analyzed) and the number of energy conservation opportunities to be found."

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) identifies three levels of energy audits:

  • Walk-through Assessment: energy bills are analyzed and, possibly, a brief visual survey of the facility is conducted. The subsequent report identifies no-cost and low-cost opportunities. This is the least costly of the three levels.
  • Energy Survey and Analysis: a more detailed analysis is conducted, including a breakdown of how energy is used within the building. Recommendations consider an owner's operations and maintenance, constraints, and economic criteria. Potential capital-intensive opportunities are identified in the final report for further research and analysis. This is the typical level of audit.
  • Detailed Analysis of Capital-Intensive Modifications (Investment-grade Audit): this analysis focuses on capital-intensive opportunities and provides a higher degree of monitoring, data collection, and engineering analysis. The report includes detailed cost and savings information with a high-level of confidence sufficient for major capital investment decisions, and may include a reasonable timeline for implementation of each recommendation.

Local utilities are valuable partners for energy audits. The utilities can arrange for one of their engineers to assist with an energy audit or can recommend third-party providers in your area. The utilities also have testing equipment, such as portable meters and diagnostic software, that in-house facility staff can use to conduct an energy audit. Check with the local water agency, too, to see if they provide water audits - integrating energy-related and water-related upgrades into one action plan provides additional cost savings with the least amount of disruption to workers and building occupants.

Remember that certain problems only occur during a particular time or season. Time energy audits accordingly. For example, if you decide to upgrade chiller equipment that underperforms in warm weather, be sure to schedule the energy audit during summer months so that engineers can test it in the appropriate conditions.

Industrial Assessment Centers

Industrial Assessment Centers (IAC)
The Federal Government has been funding industrial assessments for small and medium sized manufacturing firms since 1976. An industrial assessment is, quite simply, an in-depth assessment of a plant site; its facilities, services and manufacturing operations. This term is used to refer to a process which involves a thorough examination of potential savings from:

  • Energy efficiency improvements,
  • Waste minimization and pollution prevention, and
  • Productivity improvement.


Assessments are performed by local teams of engineering faculty and students from participating universities across the country. The assessment begins with a university-based IAC team conducting a survey of the eligible plant, followed by a one or two-day site visit, taking engineering measurements as a basis for assessment recommendations. The team then performs a detailed analysis for specific recommendations with related estimates of costs, performance and payback times.


IACs have achieved the following results since 1976:

  • Saved facilities participating in the program $55,000 a year on average. Payback on implementation averages only 12 months, and the savings keep adding up, year after year.
  • Saved U.S. companies more than $700 million through efficiency and productivity improvements.
  • Saved enough energy to power a city the size of Boston for a year.

  • Helped create and maintain more than 1.5 million industry jobs in the United States.


Resources

Flex Your Power information on Audits, Classes, and Services

U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Energy Audits: Reading List

Thuman, A., PE, CEM and Younger, W.J., CEM. Handbook of Energy Audits, Sixth Edition. Fairmont Press, 2003.

Milan, C.B., PE, CEM. Industrial Audit Guidebook: A Guidebook for Performing Walk-through Energy Audits of Industrial Facilities. Bonneville Power Administration.

Pacific Gas and Electric, Energy Audit by Experts.

Pacific Gas and Electric, Pacific Energy Center, Tool Lending Library has thousands of measurement tools available for short-term energy projects like in-house energy audits.

Southern California Edison, Online Energy Survey