Review of a State Industrial Efficiency Program: Texas Industries of the Future

Abstract

The US DOE requested that applicants for state industrial program funds evaluate the impacts of their program. This review was conducted for activities 2001-August 2007. The evaluation looks at the program from a number of perspectives: Strategic Plan accomplishments; attendees at events; impacts of Best Practice trainings; and individual project outcomes.

Since its inception, the program has organized 48 workshops, forums, roundtables and conferences, with a total of over 2,300 attendees. Some of the accomplishments are noted below:

• 59 out of the top 195 or 30 % of the largest industrial sites have staff that attended Texas IOF events. The goal was to reach 25 % of the largest industrial plants in Texas.

• Best Practice trainings are estimated to have saved 1.791 trillion Btus as a result of attendees going back to their plants, using the software, and implementing energy saving projects.

• The Texas IOF manual and calculator to help small and medium sized manufacturers assess energy savings opportunities has been used by the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center, which reports identifying savings of $660,000 at 9 facilities, with replication opportunity at another 13 sites.

• Fifteen percent of the sites that signed up in 2006 to participate in the US DOE Save Energy Now plant assessment program were from Texas. This is the largest number of any state.

• The program has been a successful two-way conduit for information on energy efficiency, from plants in Texas to US DOE headquarters and vice versa. This is demonstrated by the incorporation of the proposed Texas pilot project on plant certification into a national program now under development.

The presentation will also cover outcomes from individual projects.