Energy Audit - Finding the Opportunities

An energy audit is and essential step in any project that aims to realise energy savings. 

Energy Cybernetics delivers a range of energy auditing services to help you achieve energy excellence.  These include:

• Scoping Energy Audit 
• Basic Energy Audit 
• Detailed Feasibility Energy Audit 
• Investment Grade Energy Audit 
• Baseline Energy Audit  

Each of these energy audits are explained in more detail below.

Scoping Energy Audit

The purpose of a Scoping Energy Audit is to (quickly) determine whether it is worthwhile to investigate a site or an opportunity in-depth. 

Once completed, a rough business case can be compiled which can be used to decide whether to proceed or not. 

An Energy Cybernetics Energy Scoping Audit typically requires a site walk-through by one of our energy management specialists accompanied by a representative of your company. No metering or logging equipment is installed during a Scoping Audit. 

 Basic Energy Audit

A Basic Energy Audit expands on the scope of a Scoping Audit.

Following a Basic Energy Audit, Energy Cybernetics will deliver a clear picture of the energy usage patterns in your organisation.

We will install meters or loggers to collect energy consumption data.
Low-hanging fruit (quick-hits) are often apparent after a Basic Energy Audit is delivered.

Detailed Feasibility Energy Audit

A Detailed Feasibility Energy Audit expands on the scope of a Basic Energy Audit.

The purpose of a Detailed Feasibility Energy Audit is to:

• Eliminate technical uncertainty regarding the solutions identified before the implementation phase starts.
• Eliminate and/or quantify any technical risks.

An Energy Cybernetics Detailed Feasibility Energy Audit delivers a detailed report on the energy opportunities that have been found to be technically feasible, i.e. energy interventions that can be implemented.

• We will identify the technical uncertainty or risk regarding the opportunities before implementation.
• We will deliver a risk management plan to eliminate and/or quantify any technical risks – this includes aspects such as maintenance requirements, ability to integrate with existing systems, availability of replacement parts, etc.
• We will use technical risk to rank the selected opportunities in the order of preference.

Investment Grade Energy Audit

An Investment Grade Energy Audit extends the scope of a Detailed Feasibility Energy Audit.

The purpose of an Investment Grade Energy Audit is to:

• Eliminate financial uncertainty regarding the solutions identified.
• Eliminate and/or quantify any financial risks.

An Investment Grade Energy Audit extends and builds on a Detailed Feasibility Energy Audit to include;

• A comprehensive life-cycle cost approach for each of the opportunities identified.  This provides a much better picture of financial viability than simple measures like payback periods.
  
• Scenario planning -these are typical "what if" scenarios like, what if the tariff increases by 5%, 10% more (or less) than anticipated? What if interest rates goes up by x%, down by x%? What if the savings achieved is y% more or less than anticipated? What if production targets are changed, etc. 

An Energy Cybernetics Investment Grade Audit delivers a detailed report on those energy projects which have been found to be both technically as well as financially viable.

• We will identify financial uncertainty or risk before implementation.
  
• We will deliver a risk management plan to eliminate and/or quantify the financial risks identified.
  
• We will rank the selected opportunities in order of preference from both a technical as well as financial perspective.
  
• We will deliver cost/benefit analyses of the opportunities.
  
• We will estimate the life-cycle cost for each of the qualifying opportunities. 

Once the energy audit phase in complete, you should be left with

• A clear picture of the energy use in your organisation.
• An accurate benchmark of historical consumption.
• The various options available to reduce or improve your energy consumption.
• A complete technical risk analysis of each of the options identified.
• A complete financial analysis (business case) for each of the options identified.

Baseline Energy Audit

The purpose of a Baseline Energy Audit is to establish a credible, calibrated baseline for the consumption of a particular site or a specific process within a site.

A Baseline Energy Audit is usually required when performance contracts are used - i.e. where there is an agreement in place where savings are shared between parties or where one party is required to deliver a specified level of performance. In such cases an independent, credible party able to develop, maintain and monitor the baseline and quantify the impact goes a long way towards eliminating potential conflict situations.

A Baseline Energy Audit establishes the reasons for variation (i.e. the drivers of energy consumption) so that future impact analysis can be made relative to what the consumption would have been under normal conditions prior to an intervention. An intervention is typically an energy optimisation project but could also be changes made to the plant or process.

Once a baseline is established, any future improvements or changes can be measured against this baseline to determine the impact made by the improvement irrespective of changes to production volumes, climatic conditions, etc.

Establishing a credible, verifiable and independent baseline according to Internationally (and locally - SANS 50 010) recognised standards is critical in order to later claim the credits for the impact achieved. This may apply to environmental compliance, reaching Energy Accord targets or to meeting company specific targets.

Energy Cybernetics has well over 100 man-years experience developing and maintaining baselines for Eskom DSM projects. We are represented on the Technical Committee of the IPMVP (International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol) and were instrumental in developing the Internationally acclaimed Eskom M&V procedure used to evaluate DSM projects.

Stated simply, a Baseline Audit answerers the following question:

• What would my consumption have been under these conditions (production, climatic, etc.) without (prior to) the intervention?
• Consequently - what am I really saving due to the intervention?

Contact us to discuss your energy audit requirements.