Overcoming Barriers to Effective Energy Management in Industrial Settings

Energy management for industry is many times an unspoken objective in organizations because it is desirable to reduce operating costs but often not important enough to justify a financial investment in managing. Unfortunately without a comprehensively planned and adequately funded management program, energy management efforts degrade into unsustainable or ineffective programs that are discarded and forgotten shortly after initiation until the next energy crisis occurs. To overcome see-saw management efforts, implementation of systematic management like that described in the ANSI/MSE 2000 standard is recommended. The ANSI/MSE 2000 energy management standard contains the elements necessary to institute and sustain a system of continuous improvement in energy management. While ANSI/MSE 2000 contains all the elements necessary to describe an effective management system, translating it from a standards document into a functioning real world management system can be complex. This paper details the implementation process at two industrial facilities. Activities involved in planning, instituting and maintaining an energy management system are presented. Additionally, barriers to successful implementation such as management commitment, funding support, project identification and prioritization, selection of energy team participants and tracking management system progress are described and resolutions discussed. The finished management system structure and system results are presented.