Auditing to The Cutting Edge

Abstract

Equipment? System? Building? Campus? Neighborhood? Community? Region? What is to be audited and what needs to be corrected? Can the energy management professional decide, or should the customer? Over the last few decades, energy professionals have been evaluating energy use in order to balance clients' expenditures with acceptable levels of service. Traditionally, professional expertise and creativity have been limited more by budget than any other single element. Today, energy and the environment are tightly intertwined. In the future, effective energy management may not be possible without considering the relationships between them. Conversely, environmental protection cannot be achieved without considering energy production, distribution, and use. To this end, two powerful federal organizations, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Energy (DOE), have been engaged in defining the interrelationships of these areas and fashioning national energy policies aimed at awakening Americans to these facts. Environmental demands are becoming a factor in efficiency equations. Energy management professionals should prepare a response. They will face demands for cutting-edge audits that reach further than giving utility power just a trim in the energy barber shop. Survival in the business of energy management will require a broader perspective. One need only lookmore » to current advertisements by national and international corporations which praise the environmental benefits of their products and even their places of business as cleaner than their competitors'. For the energy management professional then, energy diversity and source versus site considerations are opportunities to be identified in the audit process, in addition to replacement of inefficient equipment. The country is rich with technology choices, with documented experience, and with the knowledge to create systems that can mine deep savings. True, some have niche applications, which means someone has to find the niche. Making cost-effective connections between specific problems and special solutions is not quite as easy as relamping. Some solutions have broader application than others. In all cases, success requires a broad perspective, thinking outside the box, something at which engineers can excel when challenged. With the new consumer awareness then, what should the audit approach be? The article attempts to answer this question.« less