Retrotec USACE - Manual (Page 36)

14 ENERGY & PROCESS ASSESSMENT PROTOCOL
Develop the business case for justifying and gaining funding approval for 5.
action plan projects and the resources needed.
Investigate possibilities for outside funding sources such as energy per-
6.
formance contracting (EPC) or energy service companies (ESCOs).
(More information is available at sites such as www.eurocontract.net.)
Defi ne a monitoring plan for the implementation of ECM and the sav-
7.
ings achieved. Often, some kind of follow-up assessment will be needed
after a few years to assess how well the implemented audit suggestions
are functioning.
Combine M&O training programs in the action plan and defi ne how the
8.
continuous commission can be used to keep up the improved perfor-
mance and savings achieved.
The fi nal target of the action plan is to use energy management and assess-
ment activities to develop a continuous cycle of energy performance improve-
ment, as shown in Figure 9, which is based on a presentation that can be found
on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Web site:
Figure 9. Ongoing/continuous improvement of energy performance.
In this kind of energy management scheme, energy assessment has a fun-
damental role, but the actions must be renewed regularly because the occu-
pational factors of a building will change and the performance of technical
systems usually decreases over time. To be successful, an energy assessment
must also be closely integrated with the organization’s general energy manage-
ment. To assure continuity some assessment functions (e.g., monitoring) must
be closely integrated within the M&O activities. When daily M&O is devel-
oped toward continuous commissioning, the sustainability of saving results can
be guaranteed, as described later in Chapter 6.