Pacific Power

 Just 30 years after Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, Pacific Power & Light Company (PP&L) was born in the Pacific Northwest. Formed in 1910, PP&L started from several small electric companies and served 7,000 customers in Astoria and Pendleton in Oregon, and Yakima and Walla Walla in Washington.

Developing a plan to save energy at your business

Source: Pacific Power and Tech Resources Inc.

Energy management plans can help your business significantly reduce energy expenditures. A comprehensive energy management plan draws together all components that directly and indirectly impact energy costs.

The focus of your energy management program should be to reduce energy consumption and procurement costs, creating energy savings that can be used to improve the reliability of the facility infrastructure systems. This, in turn, reduces deferred maintenance, improves the work environment and creates additional savings for future energy management initiatives.
 

Steps

• Take inventory—Identify the components at your facility that impact energy costs. Include all mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems within a facility, as well as the building envelope and other infrastructure components.
• Review the last three years of energy bills‑-Identify areas of highest energy use and trends that show increasing energy costs. Three years of bills are required to minimize the effects of an excessively hot summer or cold winter, for example.
• Account for building expansions and other infrastructure changes‑-These changes might include building additions, insulation upgrades, lighting upgrades, the addition of new load (such as would be the case with increased use of computers), employee hires or reductions, and so on. Determine if these changes can explain variations in energy bills.
• Consider planned expansions and other changes in future developments of the business‑-If your business has an energy management system (EMS), can it grow with these changes? If a new EMS is being considered, is it capable of meeting future business requirements?
• Put an effective maintenance plan into place‑-An EMS can quickly become ineffective when control valves, dampers, and sensors have failed.
   

For a sample plan, see “Developing a Master Plan for Energy Management” in the eLibrary section of Pacific Power’s free Business Solutions Toolkit at pacificpower.net/toolkit.