Energy Auditing and Optimisation Consulting

Until recently, South Africans have been largely shielded from the global energy shortage.  Regardless of the reasons for our current electricity shortage, the fact remains that we currently dont have enough safety margin between the installed generation capacity in the country and the fluctuating peak demand, which results in occassional "load shedding" with all its very negative conseqences.  Even if the tight rope between supply and demand can be successully negotiated in the foreseable short term, the country urgently needs new power stations to enable the robust growth we all desire.  A far bigger problem is that the 14 or more existing major power stations will all be reaching the end of their design lives at about 2025 as the graph above shows.

It takes about ten years to build a power station.  So one would think that building should be starting soon for about 15 power stations just to maintain our existing generation capacity.

All of this implies that the price of electricity can be expected to increase dramatically to reflect the much higher cost of supply and that these increases can be expected to persist for some time.

Whilst South Africa could boast the cheapest electricity in the world, corporations could afford to be relatively relaxed about energy consumption.  However given the current circumstances, and expected future developments, placing a higher priority on energy efficiency will make financial sense in the long term to any corporation.  Another sound reason for energy conservation is the immeadiate need to reduce the consumption of each corporation by 10-20% to provide a larger safety margin between the country's current generation capacity and overall peak demand.

It would thus make strategic sense to establish a company-wide energy saving initiative in most corporations.  As with all such initiatives, the following key points are typically required for consistent success:

• Senior management should commit formally to a set of clear, measurable energy saving objectives which can be rolled down throughout the organisation.
• A base line of existing energy consumption for all facilities within the corporation should be established to define the current "as is" position.
• Energy consumption profiles for all facilities in the organisation should be measured to a detailed level (preferably at least 30 minute data points) on an on-going basis.
• A reporting structure should be established in which various relevant energy consumption ratios and metrics should be included in each management level's standard month-end reporting pack.
• Higher than normal consumption events and exceptions should be indentified and investigated to establish the causes.
• Energy saving opportunities should be identified and prioritised.  Budgets should be defined and approved for these projects.
• Behavioural coaching and awareness programs should be defined to make staff aware of their individual impact in the overall objectives.
• Individual energy saving projects should be project managed to successful conclusion.

We can advise you on how to go about part, or all, of such a programme of systematic energy efficiency improvement and coordinate the various activities that arise.  In addition to that we offer the following services: 

• Our trained energy auditors can provide detailed reports quantifying the main energy consumption modes of any or all of your various facilities.
• We can measure all your various facilities (down to 1 minute data reading periods) and provide monthly, quarterly or annual reports on energy consumption patterns per day, month or year.  This information can be aggregated accross facilities or organisational structures as you may require, to provide relevant summaries at each level of the company.  We can also analyse exceptions highlighted in the data and establish causes where required.
• We can indentify energy saving opportunities and advise on the best means to effect savings.
• We can project manage energy saving installations where required.

Please contact us if you require any further information.