Energy Savings Actions in Industry

A first article entitled "Energy savings and energy performance – Notions, issues and methods" placed the notion of energy savings at the heart of a system involving issues linked to national energy independence, the balance of trade, corporate competitiveness, household purchasing power, the fight to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs)... For most companies, the stakes are just as high, and can affect their survival when energy prices soar. Knowing what actions to take to reduce energy consumption can help you stay competitive, and can even prove vital to maintaining your business, no longer suffering or being passive, and taking the right decisions to ensure your energy future. The path to follow begins with an energy audit or diagnosis, which will provide a better understanding of your energy situation and the actions you need to take to improve it. These include calculating and monitoring energy performance indicator(s) (EPI), setting up an energy management system and metering plan, taking steps to improve energy performance and, in particular, the efficiency of installations, as well as behavioral actions - the latter most often at zero cost - to reduce the establishment's total energy consumption by at least 10%. To take this reduction in energy consumption a step further and make it a long-term process, the implementation of a progress initiative such as an energy management system will enable continuous improvement. But at the heart of all these systems are the energy-saving actions to be implemented after studying their technical and organizational feasibility, cost and payback time. These actions can be presented in different categories depending on the criteria chosen by the company, either by type of action: technical, organizational or functional, behavioral, etc.; or by timeframe: immediate implementation, in x months or years, according to deadlines; or by financial commitment: zero cost, moderate cost, major investment. In this article, energy-saving actions are presented by energy use, e.g. space heating, compressed air production/management, process... The diversity of energy uses makes it impossible to cover them all, and only the main ones are presented.

It's worth remembering that implementing energy-saving measures is essential if we are to meet our targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and that above all we need to strike the right balance between the energy needs we have to meet and the solutions we have to find to satisfy them, while preserving raw material resources as far as possible, and even returning more energy than was used (the concept of positive energy).

Many solutions for optimized energy use are technically and financially accessible. Their payback time is often very short (less than a year), or even zero cost.