Saving energy through energy management

It has been quite often when I have to encounter people coming to my office and through phone calls asking me the same type of questions.
"En. Zaini, how to save energy in my factory?"
"Who can help us to save energy?"
" Where can I get a good consultant to do a good energy audit?"
" Does this "energy saving" device save energy?"

Among all that questions, I would much better and more excited when there were some of them also asked me " Where can I send my staff for a training to save energy?" or " Where can I find a good training provider to send my engineers?".


Why do I prefer to hear the second type of question? Here are my thoughts about the two.

It is simply because the first one shows that they are most likely not sure yet on what to do next and just want quick solutions for quick gains. There are so much uncertainties in their actual intentions in term of managing their energy. Most likely there is no long term plan ahead of what they are asking now.

The second show a little bit of long term plan by having their staff to be trained since training only would not save energy yet unless the trained staff being allowed to implement the knowledge gained from training attended. I would anticipate staff who will be sent to the training will have some kind of responsibilities in their existing scope of works that would enable them to initiate and implement energy saving initiatives in the plant and later manage them.

In short, the first type of questions indicate that they just wanted to save energy but the later type of questions indicate their intention to manage energy by having trained people available who will eventually save energy from them.

What is efficient energy management?

Generally it can be defined as:

Using energy at the most optimum level through a proper system implemented within the organization.

From efficient energy management we would expect some of the following direct benefits:

1. Reduction in energy costs and in the same time to increase profits earned from the operations.
2.Increase of output/quality/comfort level and etc by using the same of lower quantity of energy.
3. Ensure local and global competitiveness for businesses since cheaper cost needed to produce higher quality of products or deliver better services.
4...and many more.

Once we start to manage our energy usage, we will definitely will enjoy some amount savings and all that can be translated into cost reduction as well. In simple words, energy management is an on-going approach to retain or improve our efficiency level by adopting energy management system developed to suit the nature of the organization.