Planning

There are a variety of resources available to help Saudi organizations to better identify energy performance improvement opportunities:

• SEEC is the entity responsible for licensing companies in Saudi Arabia intending to perform energy efficiency related services in the building and industry sector. This include providing licenses for three types of companies: 1) Energy audit companies, 2) Energy Service Companies, and 3) Industrial Energy Audit Companies. SEEC maintains an online listing of licensed companies, which can be viewed a the SEEC website. More details about each type of license is also available. Organizations seeking external support to identify energy savings opportunities should contact one or more licensed companies to inquire on services.
• The Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) provides loans to organizations in Saudi Arabia to fund industrial projects that include energy efficiency or renewable energy projects. For example, the SIDF Tanafusiya program provides financing to support the implementation of energy efficiency projects and industrial digital transformation program projects, which can include financing for submetering and monitoring of significant energy uses. Alternatively, the SIDF Mutajadeda program provides financing for renewable energy production projects for organizations in the industrial, commercial, and other sectors.
• The King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE) Technology Localization and Commercialization (TLC) program provides funding to Saudi organizations to implement renewable energy projects at industrial and commercial facilities. This includes cost-shared funding of full-scale demonstrations of commercially-ready technologies, as well as earlier-stage feasibility projects. Saudi organizations can leverage the KACARE funding program to adopt renewable energy and energy efficient technologies at their facilities.

Identification of energy performance improvement opportunities is the responsibility of the energy team. Input from all employees, as well as from external resources, should be solicited and considered as appropriate.

One common method for identifying opportunities is an energy assessment, also known as an energy audit. Energy assessments are an excellent method for collecting data for the energy review (see Task 8 Energy Data Collection and Analysis) and provide a vital source of information for energy management planning, including identification of energy improvement opportunities. Assessments yield a “snapshot” of your organization’s current energy performance and offer a list of quantified improvement measures. Assessments can be conducted by the energy manager, members of the energy team or continual improvement teams (e.g., Kaizen teams), corporate energy specialists, utility personnel or external consultants.

There are a variety of resources available to provide guidance to your organization to better conduct energy audits. A few examples include the following:

• The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) System Assessment standards also provide guidance on energy system assessments. ASME guidance is available for specific energy systems related to both industrial and commercial organizations (e.g., Energy Assessment for Process Heating Systems (ASME EA-1-2009), Energy Assessment for Pumping Systems (ASME EA-2-2009), Energy Assessment for Compressed Air Systems (ASME EA-4-2010), and Energy Assessment for Steam Systems (ASME EA-3-2009)).
• The ISO 50002:2014 standard (https://www.iso.org/standard/60088.html) specifies the principles of carrying out energy audits, requirements for the common processes during energy audits, and deliverables for energy audits. It is applicable to all types of establishments and organizations, and all forms of energy and energy use.
• The U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office also provides a variety of resources for identifying energy savings opportunities in specific energy systems, including a variety of online system assessment tools. System analysis tools are available for compressed air systems, fans, motors, pumps, process heating systems, steam systems, and industrial buildings. These tools are available at the DOE website here: https://www.energy.gov/eere/amo/software-tools. An example is the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) MEASUR tool (https://www.energy.gov/eere/amo/measur). MEASUR consists of the following energy system assessment tools:
  • Pumping System Assessment Tool (PSAT)
  • Process Heating Assessment and Survey Tool (PHAST)
  • Fan System Assessment Tool (FSAT)
  • Steam System Assessment Tool (SSAT)/ Steam System Modeler (SSMT)
  • AIRMaster (compressed air systems)

Personnel working for or on behalf of your organization are generally useful in defining energy opportunities not discovered during an energy assessment. These personnel may be closely associated with energy-consuming equipment or processes and may uncover unique opportunities because of their experience. Using this type of expertise offers the potential to discover unconventional improvements and engage personnel who otherwise may not be actively involved in energy management.

Energy assessments are very effective, but can be expensive. Other approaches to defining energy performance improvement opportunities are described in the “Learn More” link directly below.

Once opportunities are identified, the next step in energy planning is to document and prioritize the identified opportunities. The choice of prioritization method is up to the organization; however, it must be systematic and ongoing. It can be difficult and time-consuming for your organization to process every potential improvement idea; prioritizing them based on defined criteria helps you focus resources on the most practical opportunities.

The SEEC Energy Performance Improvement Opportunity Tracker (Tracker) spreadsheet can be used to better organize, prioritize, and track energy saving opportunities. The Tracker provides a centralized spreadsheet to list opportunities under considerations and details of each action’s implementation, including action description, prioritization criteria, actual energy savings, engineering assumptions and source of energy savings determination, and responsible party.

The following activities will help you develop and apply criteria for prioritizing opportunities:

• Get the right people together.
• Review relevant organizational information.
• Determine criteria.
• Develop tools or techniques for applying criteria.
• Apply criteria to prioritize opportunities.

Get the right people together. Involve individuals from different functions and levels within your organization in developing the criteria for prioritizing your organization’s opportunities. Different points of view will ensure consideration of a wide range of potential factors. If the energy team already has adequate representation from across the various functions and levels, then no additions to the team may be needed. On the other hand, this can be a time to involve other personnel who may bring specific knowledge or experience useful to the process of setting the criteria for prioritizing opportunities. This could include, for example, personnel knowledgeable about your organization’s capital planning or project justification processes.

Review relevant organizational information. The energy team should gather and review organizational information that may affect the criteria and the approach to be used in prioritizing opportunities. In addition, it may be helpful for the energy team to be aware of any existing risk assessment processes already in use by your organization, and a clear understanding of your organization’s safety and environmental risk tolerance.

Determine criteria. When selecting criteria, consider the organizational information you collected, and develop criteria that will address your organization’s needs and requirements.

You determine the type and number of criteria to be used. One or two criteria may be sufficient, or many may be required. You also determine whether scoring or rating scales for each criterion will be established and applied (e.g., a range of energy savings that are acceptable). If only one criterion is to be used, a simple go / no go limit may be adequate. Multiple criteria typically require a process for determining the relative importance of each criteria and how they will be evaluated (see the next activity).

Remember to maintain documented information on the criteria that will be used to prioritize the opportunities. This ensures the criteria are clearly understood and uniformly applied. The optional 50001 Ready Playbook Task 10 worksheet can give you some ideas on how criteria can be documented.

Develop tools or techniques for applying criteria. You now have developed criteria for prioritizing opportunities. This ensures that your organization’s resources are focused on the most viable set of potential energy performance improvement projects. Developing tools or techniques to apply the criteria can make the process of prioritization easier.

If your organization already has the tools to prioritize potential projects, it may make sense to use (or adapt) those same tools for prioritizing energy performance improvement opportunities.

Typically, the criteria used to evaluate projects will have different levels of importance. If the criteria are not equally important, then the energy team should determine the relative weighting.

As an example, within your organization, estimated cost savings may be more important than the ease of implementing the opportunity. In this case, cost savings might be weighted twice as heavily as the ease of implementation criteria.

Apply criteria to prioritize opportunities. Order the list of energy opportunities from highest to lowest priority. Use a “reality check” to evaluate the prioritized list; that is, ensure the list makes sense from perspectives that may not be directly reflected by the criteria, and that the opportunities seem to fall in line with the organization’s expectations. If one or more of the opportunities appear to not make sense, it may be necessary to reevaluate the criteria or the weightings used for the criteria. Consider the following questions:

• Does the prioritized list make sense with regard to your organization’s overall business objectives and plans?
• Are there criteria that have not been considered that have skewed the prioritization?
• Do the weights reflect your organization’s priorities?
• Are there any planned organizational or other changes that will affect the prioritized list?

As new energy saving opportunities are identified, ensure they are prioritized and included in the list.

As a component of the energy review, the prioritized opportunities for energy performance improvement must be updated at specific intervals and when major changes in sites, equipment, systems, or energy-using processes take place. The specific interval for the updating is defined by your organization. The interval chosen can be the same as that defined for the energy review as a whole, or as defined for other components of the energy review, or defined as an interval specific only to the updating of the energy opportunities. The minimum interval typically chosen by organizations is at least once a year.

Ensuring that energy opportunities are updated when major changes are made should be integrated with the updating of all components of the energy review in response to major changes in sites, equipment, systems, and energy-using processes. Such changes can present new opportunities for energy performance improvement, can negate some energy opportunities, or can affect the prioritization of the energy opportunities. The best approach for appropriate updating is to ensure that the relevant personnel (e.g., energy manager, energy team leader, one or more members of the energy team) are included in the planning for the types of major changes mentioned above. To be effective for the EnMS, change management processes must give attention to the effects of the changes on the energy situation of the organization, including the energy review and all its components.