Less Talking and More Walking down the Energy Efficiency Road

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Less Talking and More Walking down the Energy
Efficiency Road the Journey has begun
22nd February 2007 International Conference
on Sustainability Engineering and Science

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An acknowledgement

• This paper would not have been possible without
  the experience I gained over the last 4 years as
  the Chief Executive of Demand Response Limited.
  As the leading contractor to Fonterra for their
  Energy Reduction project, my project team broke
  new ground and helped them continue their journey
  in energy efficiency.

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What we will cover

• Energy efficiency and sustainability
• Lifting our game
• Fonterras journey
• Reasons for success
• We need a tool-box
• How can we apply these lessons to other
  industries?
• The journey must continue for others and
  accelerate

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Energy efficiency and sustainability

• Energy efficiency and sustainability go
  hand-in-hand.
• Energy efficiency is a journey.
• Energy efficiency is also a team effort.

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Lifting our game

• In sport, we have high ambition and we are geared
  for success.
• In sport, in many cases we do not have a lot of
  money and people get on and just do it and win.
• In business, our export growth is below OECD
  average, possibly one of underachievement.
• In energy efficiency, we are also well down in
  the rankings of OECD countries we are the
  glaring anomaly.
• Yet, energy efficiency does not require huge
  investments or resources to get started.

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Lifting our game

• We are different and niche.
• But, we need the right people to drive energy
  efficiency, mainly engineers.
• We need to offer careers for our bright engineers
  in energy efficiency. They will be the champions
  of the future.
• I am confident we can make a difference if we get
  some inspirational leadership, some more
  discipline, some more training and embed some
  team-work into lifting our game.

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Fonterras journey

• It started decades ago with the industry
  investment in growth and their advances in new
  technology.
• More recently, they had to put in place a major
  initiative in energy cost reduction company-wide.
• The energy reduction project started in 2002 at a
  pilot site and was quickly rolled-out to their 10
  largest manufacturing sites.
• Their first corporate target of a 10 energy
  reduction will be achieved earlier than they
  planned.
• Some valuable lessons have been learnt along the
  way.

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Reasons for success

• By taking a positive approach
• By taking a long term view
• By team-work from engineers at all levels
• By having a clear focus on robust projects
• By being able to measure and report successes.

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The tool-box some solutions for sustainable
engineering
Tool Solution for sustainable engineering
Process descriptions Basic Heat and Materials balances and metering diagrams
Database management A flexible web-based database is needed to view, aggregate and overlay energy metering data and should hold production, weather and energy prices. Easy and flexible reporting.
Targeting methods Statistical methods improve as the database advances. Going from simple to performance based methods are needed to set more realistic and aggressive targets.
Monitoring and Targeting reports Reports must be used to take actions weekly for managers, daily for energy plant shift engineers, near real-time for operators, benchmarking and league tables across sites and emissions tracking for carbon management.
Project identification Sound process engineering and pinch techniques. Robust costbenefit life-cycle analysis.
Savings Bulletins Two page reports to summarise the savings opportunity.
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The tool-box some solutions for sustainable
engineering
Tool Solution for sustainable engineering
Calculators Simple day-to-day calculators are needed to help operators and shift engineers take actions
Utility models Complex steam and refrigeration systems can be modeled for operators and shift engineers to calculate what ifs when loads or prices change. Scheduling models can help plan boiler and compressor run-orders to meet changing demand profiles.
Common themes An effective technique in technology transfer which works well to roll-out successes. The steam, chilled water and compressed air themes have been effective.
Engineering standards Ultimately, energy efficiency experience has to incorporated into standards and procurement policies to ensure minimum life-cycle costs.
Energy budgets Achieved energy savings must be reflected in forward budgets. Normalising energy performance against production and product mix is the key.
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How can we apply these lessons to other
industries?

• As a country, we are very short of experienced
  chemical engineers with energy efficiency or
  renewables experience.
• We must look after our energy efficiency
  engineering specialists and make them our
  technology champions.
• We need to urgently introduce Best Practice
  programmes.
• The techniques behind Monitoring and Targeting
  must be advanced.
• So must the economic methods in analysing
  life-cycle costs for projects that are more
  sustainable for the environment.

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The journey must continue for others and
accelerate

• Sustainable engineering must continue on to the
  large number of medium sized sites
• But, we are a cross-roads in terms of how fast we
  can make progress.
• Our immediate challenges are to lift our game
  through leadership, discipline, training and
  team-work.
• If we can get there we may set some world records
  as a low emissions country and we will have
  something at last to celebrate along with our
  sporting successes.

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