Benchmarking and energy management schemes in SMEs

Boudewijn Huenges Wajer, SenterNovem, The Netherlands
Hans Even Helgerud, New Energy Performance AS, Norway
Petra Lackner, Austrian Energy Agency, Austria

Keywords

energy management, benchmarking, industry, SME, E-learning, best practices, auditing, checklists, cost reduction

Abstract

Many companies are reluctant to focus on energy management or to invest in energy efficiency measures. Nevertheless, there are many good examples proving that the right approach to implementing energy efficiency can very well be combined with the business-priorities of most companies. SMEs in particular can benefit from a facilitated European approach because they normally have a lack of resources and time to invest in energy efficiency. In the EU supported pilot project BESS, 60 SMEs from 11 European countries of the food & drink industries successfully tested a package of interactive instruments which offers such a facilitated approach. A number of pilot companies show a profit increase of 3 up to 10 %. The package includes a user-friendly and web based E-learning scheme for implementing energy management as well as a benchmarking module for company specific comparison of energy performance indicators. Moreover, it has several practical and tested tools to support the cycle of continuous improvement of energy efficiency in the company such as checklists, sector specific measure lists, templates for auditing and energy conservation plans. An important feature and also a key trigger for companies is the possibility for SMEs to benchmark anonymously their energy situation against others of the same sector. SMEs can participate in a unique web based benchmarking system to interactively benchmark in a way which fully guarantees confidentiality and safety of company data. Furthermore, the available data can contribute to a bottom-up approach to support the objectives of (national) monitoring and targeting and thereby also contributing to the EU Energy Efficiency and Energy Services Directive. A follow up project to expand the number of participating SMEs of various sectors is currently being developed.