Success factors of energy management in energy-intensive industries: Development priority of energy performance measurement

Abstract

SUMMARY Economic, environmental and social pressures have increased the need for business organisations to control and manage their energy performance on a continual basis. Responding to these pressures follows a learning curve that is influenced by changing drivers and barriers. Consequently, different energy management factors have different development priorities over time. This paper explores the development priority of one factor, namely, energy performance measurement, in the energy‐intensive industrial sector, which is the most advanced industrial sector in its energy management learning curve. In addition, the paper identifies the research and development needs of energy performance measurement that are required to further improve energy performance. The results are based on interviews carried out with managers and operators in three energy‐intensive industrial sectors in Finland. Energy performance measurement is found to be the third development priority in energy management, behind resource and commitment issues. This represents a paradox as resources and commitment are prerequisites for energy performance measurement to be developed, whereas energy performance measurement influences the very same issues by enforcing changed behaviour. Several deficiencies are identified in energy performance measurement in the temporal, systemic and organisational dimensions. Research should be continued towards the implementation of energy performance measurement as a process, the integration of energy performance metrics into overall management and the development of metrics for different industrial sectors, companies and operating cultures. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Energy management in industry – a systematic review of previous findings and an integrative conceptual framework

“…They also argue that adequate KPI for energy efficiency should be defined on company, plant and if necessary even on process level. Sivill et al (2013) analyzed the development needs of energy performance measurement based on an empirical study where interviews were conducted with managers and operators in three energyintensive industrial sectors in Finland. They concluded that the data and indicators available today do not allow for effective performance evaluation and decision support.…”

“…Both managers and operators share the view that current measurement systems are inadequate for managing energy. Sivill et al (2013) especially emphasize that operating personnel lack visibility of energy performance in their daily activities and performance metrics are too focused on departmental level, leaving out the subsystem and equipment levels. Virtanen et al (2013) also examined the complexities involved in the measurement and management of energy efficiency.…”

“…Furthermore, it defines key performance indicators (KPI), measures and evaluates the performance effects of the implemented energy efficiency measures, benchmarks against internal and external objects of comparison and suggests, if necessary, corrective actions (Bunse et al, 2011;McKane et al, 2007;Sivill et al, 2013). By periodically reporting the energy use and related energy costs to management, a performance-related feedback loop is ensured (Abdelaziz et al, 2011).…”

Empirical investigation of barriers and drivers to the adoption of energy conservation measures, energy management practices and energy services in the Swedish iron and steel industry

“…We contacted the energy managers and remaining companies (see Jernkontoret, 2011). If the company has no energy manager, we asked, similar to Sivill et al (2013), for the environmental, plant, production or technical development manager (see Table 1). Before sending the questionnaire (see section 2.2), we checked whether the point of contact is able to give sound answers to our questions.…”

An Innovative Energy Management System for the Integration of Volatile Energy into Industrial Processes

“…Many studies have been dedicated to find new solutions to improve the energy efficiency within industrial processes. How the adoption of EMS by energy-intensive industries, such as pulp and paper production, may improve the energy efficiency of the whole production process was pointed out in [8][9][10]. This was investigated similarly in [11,12], in which the iron, steel, ceramic and cement industrial sectors were considered.…”