Our Most Popular Energy Conservation Opportunities - Ideas That Could Save Big Dollars For You

Abstract

The Oklahoma Energy Analysis and Diagnostic Center (OEADC) is a nonprofit program funded by the U.S. Department of Energy with the University Science Center of Philadelphia acting as a primary manager. The primary objective of OEADC is to provide aid to small to medium sized Oklahoma Industries in identifying and analyzing pragmatic energy management opportunities in process or plant operations. The Oklahoma EADC has completed more than 120 industrial audits for Oklahoma manufacturing firms from which over 250 Energy Conservation Opportunities (ECO's) have been identified and analyzed. This paper, however, analyzes the 48 distinct ECO's suggested in the first 50 industrial energy audits.

The primary objective of this paper is to propagate a more widespread awareness of energy management in the manufacturing firm by presenting a list of popular ECO's. A secondary objective is to provide additional information for the decision making process regarding energy conservation projects. An equally important third purpose is to relate the savings in energy and dollars achievable through the application of practical energy management opportunities. The analysis incorporates the aspects of frequency of ECO suggestion in audited plants, average dollar savings per ECO, average payback period associated with each ECO, fast payback and large dollar savings concepts are also identified and evaluated.