Energy Management is a quiet topic that get’s little or no attention in the national media, because for the average person it has no relevance. But when the person writing the checks for the gas and electric bills sees the tangible reductions in the total bills, it’s very exciting for them. This is especially true when that person has a financial stake in the company, such as the owner.

What is energy management?

Energy Management is an ongoing effort in an organization to monitor all areas of energy consumption within the company, and then to reduce wasteful practices and update business infrastructure that has not been functioning at peak efficiency. This includes refrigeration and air conditioning, compressed air, steam and boilers, lighting, etc.

And now for - The Top 3 things about Energy Management that Most Business People Don’t Know- countdown

Number 3 - Energy Management does NOT have to cost a lot

There are many strategies that a company can implement that have little or no cost and will produce immediate savings, and it’s more than just changing the room temperature a half degree up or down and turning off the lights when you leave the room. When you have the knowledge, there’s a lot of low or no-cost solutions to reducing your energy consumption that can easily cut your company’s total energy bills 5 to 10 percent when combining all energy types.

There are, of course, those things that do have considerable expense when purchasing and implementing them, but the energy reduction is typically very high and can produce massive annual savings for your company when you know what they are and you put them in place.

Number 2 - Energy Management should not adversely affect your operation or people

Too often, the first thing people want to do when they go it alone on their Energy Management Program is to turn the heat way down or the air conditioning way up and install sub-par lighting that makes it difficult for workers to function—This is not the way to do it. Sure, you can change the room temps, but it should not negatively impact worker comfort. A couple of degrees is often more than enough. There is no reason to make the receptionist wear a jacket.

A properly run Energy Management Program (EMP) starts with responsible, dedicated staff to manage the program and make sure that it is being implemented safely and effectively without adversely affecting the company or the employees. Which leads us to the Number 1 Thing about Energy Management that Most People Don’t Know.

Number 1 - Get Trained

Getting trained is the most important part of a productive Energy Management Program.

You can try to do Energy Management alone and grope around in the dark and hope to save some money, but usually those programs fade away and quickly die because they seldom produce the savings hoped for, due to lack of knowledge. The biggest reasons that they fade into oblivion are that they see little savings, the employees are uncomfortable, and capital expenditures discourage them.

When the key staff is properly trained in Energy Management , they know what to do, the order in which to do it, and very importantly, when to do it. You obviously implement the free things first, and then the lowest cost with highest payback next. Then, finally, weighing investment against the time it takes to get full ROI, you do the costlier items on a sliding scale basis until you did all you can reasonably afford to do. Then you start over and review it all again. This ongoing process saves many companies millions of dollars annually on their energy expenses.

The value that Energy Management Training has to your company becomes greater with every dollar you spend on your energy expenses. And the best part is that the training cost stays the same regardless of how big your energy bills are. Training only needs to be done once for each staff member involved in the program for each area of training, with occasional tune-ups so that staff stays on top of technology and new techniques. Make sure to include new staff members that are hired after the original staff was already trained. Failing to get new staff trained, slowly diminishes your EMP as the trained members move around in the company, retire, or are stolen away by other companies.

A big mistake that upper management makes is that they train the people on the frontlines of maintenance, but fail to be educated themselves. This, too, can sabotage an otherwise good EMP ( Energy Management Program .) Let’s say that you’re a manager, and you’re sending down orders for each department. You tell them to “Properly Manage the Energy.” If they have been trained, they will do as instructed, but then once the free and low-cost aspects are done, it typically ends their progress.

That’s where upper management comes in. If you don’t know what to do, neither will they. Unless your staff is seriously dedicated to the cause, they will not push for the items to get done that have a higher price and produce massive returns, because they often don’t know the required language to properly convey the message to upper management in a way that will get results, and as a result nothing gets done.

We find that when plant managers, production managers, building managers, etc… are trained, then they understand what needs to be done and will make sure that the people they are managing get what is needed to do the job they requested their staff to do. A good Online Energy Management Course will teach the staff how to approach upper management and will give them the tools to do so, but nothing beats an EMP at a company that has upper management who is properly trained in Energy Management.

We find that companies with upper management that are trained have the lowest SER indices and have become model companies because of it.

Masters' Academy LLC