Development of Performance-based Industrial Energy Efficiency Indicators for Food Processing Plants

Organizations that implement strategic energy management programs undertake a set of activities that, if carried out properly, have the potential to deliver sustained energy savings. One key management opportunity is determining an appropriate level of energy performance for a plant through comparison with similar plants in its industry. Performance-based indicators are one way to enable companies to set energy efficiency targets for manufacturing facilities. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), through its ENERGY STAR program, is developing plant energy performance indicators (EPIs) to encourage a variety of U.S. industries to use energy more efficiently. This report describes work with the food processing industry to provide a plant-level indicator of energy efficiency for facilities that produce various types of food products in the United States. Consideration is given to the role that performance-based indicators play in motivating change; the steps necessary for indicator development, from interacting with an industry in securing adequate data for the indicator; and actual application and use of an indicator when complete. How indicators are employed in EPA’s efforts to encourage industries to voluntarily improve their use of energy is discussed as well. The report describes the data and statistical methods used to construct the EPI for plants within selected segments of the food processing industry: juice, frozen fried potatoes, tomato products, and cookie and cracker bakeries. The individual equations are presented, as well as instructions for using those equations as implemented in an associated Microsoft Excel workbook.