Making Energy Efficiency Happen: Building Skills on Energy Project Financing

Catriona Armstrong, Natural Resources Canada
Peter Bassett, Energy Performance Services Inc.

Keywords

Abstract

A tremendous body of knowledge exists on how organizations can become more energy efficient. But project identification is only the first step: the real challenge lies in convincing decision-makers to invest in energy management. Yet to date, little or no training exists on building skills on energy project financing.
In January 2005, the Office of Energy Efficiency of Natural Resources Canada, through the consultant Energy Performance Services, began development of the Dollars to $ense: Energy Efficiency Financing Workshop to address this training gap. A needs analysis was performed to ensure that the workshop would build the necessary skills to enable energy project financing. Energy managers revealed that they need to develop the skills to build an energy project business case, and to accurately generate energy savings and cash-flow projections. The workshop design was created to develop these skills and give energy managers the tools to see their projects through to implementation. A take-home calculation tool is the foundation of the workshop, used by participants to analyze the energy savings and cash flows of sample projects funded either through an organization’s own capital or through an energy performance contract.
This paper presents the key results of the Needs Analysis and describes the subsequent workshop development and course content. The result is the first workshop in Canada aimed at building skills in the financing of energy management projects for an audience of industrial, commercial and institutional participants.