11 Oct 21
My weekly article this week has turned into an educational guide but I think it does help people. Once you have read through either copy the format or ask me to send one over to you. We will soon be providing a download area on our website.
When developing your Energy Management for organisations or building your own energy management strategy I see so many times the strategy actually stops after all the proposals have been presented or once an ‘Energy Audit’ has been completed. This just does not help any one whether it will be the Assessor who has prepared all this work or the organisation who has invested in time and money to have these assessments completed. So firstly if there is an Assessment Planned put together a working plan that needs to be followed, that will conclude with monthly review meetings understanding a ‘Action Plan’
In my experience I would start preparing the ‘Action Plan’ before any assessments have been carried out and use the ‘Action Plan’ as a working document. There are initial Actions that can be put into the plan prior to any assessment which will possible be no cost initiatives. For example review the purchase of energy strategy and existing billing and plan to introduce energy management and behaviour, awareness and Energy Policy.
By implementing the ‘Action Plan’ very early you will be able to build on this with easy and it will not take long to actually implement and start to follow.
The Action plan needs to be categorised into no cost, medium cost and capital costs which will help with the order.
Below is a typical example of an ‘Action Plan’ I would actually use and have used with various organisations.
By reviewing this document on a monthly basis prior to the assessments and after the assessments a good organisation awareness will occur with prioritisation and focus on the quick win targets.
The elements of the Action plan will help manage the process simplified approach that can de addressed with busy board members but more importantly the focus can be applied on the cost, The financial saving and the payback.
The Elements of this document are as follows:
Title – This is the name of the project for example the could be The Energy Policy, LED Upgrade in Offices and Solar Project A.
Property – This is the identification of the property the associated project is linked to (We have shown this if you are working with a multi property.
Description – This is simply a description of the project. Be brief an concise.
Priority – This is a priority regarding when the project needs to be focused on, I think this need to be prioritised as 1,2 and 3 meaning that 1. Is the highest priority.
Cost, Saving £, kWh Saving and Payback (and possibly Carbon CO2e) – These figures come from ‘Simple Payback’ I really like showing these area but this is what makes the projects real. Finance Directors and Owners can see what the return on investment is going to be. Then when applied to other formulas to for Life Cycle Cost Analysis real savings start to evolve. The would then be other factors to start bringing into the mix here like ‘Net present value’ and the cost of money. The Finance Director and the owner could consider how much value of investment could be achieved with the money in the bank or by doing ‘Energy Management’ projects.
Status – By reviewing monthly status reviews and actions can be implemented to ensure that status go from Assessed, Proposed, In progress and Completed. We could then introduce verification process here to ensure savings are being maintained.
Owner – Each project needs a responsible person to take ownership of the implementation of this project. (In many cases this has been a role of the Energy Expert) but it is critical that an owner is allocated this project and accountability is put in place.
Comments – Current narratives of any actions will be applied here to keep the group focused and communicated regarding what is happening with the Action Plan.
Whether you are an Energy Expert or an Organisation this I believe gives you good guidance to create your own Action Plan. B2B Energy have implemented many of these plans over the years with individual properties or groups and find it a very good process for implementing ‘Energy Management’ Projects. One area of best practice to also consider is an Energy Action Group is developed with monthly engagement and a meeting is added to your existing management meeting rhythm, ideally prior to the organisations ‘Board Meeting’. This will ensure good visibility of the implementation.
I have created many MS Excel reports over my time to assist in managing energy projects and many documents to help present into management information.