Energy Manager: what’s involved and why is it becoming essential?
Whether internal or external to the company, the appointment of an Energy Manager is essential to improve the energy efficiency of your industrial site.
What is an Energy Manager?
Faced with sometimes energy-intensive processes and uses, it’s in every plant’s interest to appoint an Energy Manager, an expert in the field of energy. The Energy Manager plays a key role, especially when energy prices are fluctuating. On a day-to-day basis, he/she must ensure that
What are the differences between an internal and external Energy Manager?
Before appointing an Energy Manager within a plant or group, the company should be aware that it has a choice between training or recruiting the position internally, or calling in an external expert for tailor-made support. To better understand the differences between an internal and external Energy Manager, we interviewed Céline Pastol, Energy Efficiency Engineer at Dametis.
“Appointing an in-house Energy Manager is a major asset for the company. Generally from the maintenance or HSE departments, this person should ideally have several areas of expertise, both technical and regulatory. Above and beyond this, the Energy Manager must also demonstrate leadership and be capable of driving forward a dynamic in all areas, including those in which she has less expertise. The Energy Manager must quickly acquire a global vision of the energy challenges facing the site and the Group, while ensuring the follow-up and progress of optimization actions,” explains Céline.
Céline Pastol, Energy Efficiency Engineer at Dametis
Today, however, a significant proportion of manufacturers do not take the step of appointing an Energy Manager, believing that it is not a priority. And yet, energy management is becoming an increasingly strategic issue. With the arrival of new regulations and the need to reduce both costs andcarbon footprints, appointing an Energy Manager is becoming a real lever for performance and differentiation.
The industries with the highest emissions are generally aware of the central role played by this energy management expert. To compensate for a lack of time or expertise, some don’t hesitate to hire an external Energy Manager, through an engineering firm for example.
“It’s important for the external Energy Manager to be close to the customer, and to have detailed knowledge of the processes. For this reason, he/she may need to visit the site to observe the plant’s structure and talk directly with the teams in the field, with the aim of gaining a better understanding of their problems, needs and possible obstacles. The Energy Manager should be seen as a coach, who makes himself available to the teams in the field to provide them with in-depth technical expertise”, explains Céline.
What does an Energy Manager do?
Working to achieve the plant’soptimum energy performance, the Energy Manager’s tasks are many and can be facilitated by the implementation of tools such as EMS software.
Before implementing this powerful tool within the plant, it is possible to set up an energy management system (EMS). The EMSn is a system defined byISO 50001, in which an energy performance roadmap is defined. Among other things, it describes the resources mobilized, the tools used, the list of energy uses and the associated EPIs (Energy Performance Indicators). In addition to these initial elements, this system must also highlight the objectives to be achieved and the associated action plan.
To do this, the Energy Manager must analyze and monitor consumption in order to identify any anomalies (over-consumption, energy loss, etc.). He or she then passes on the results to the energy team through meetings, generally held monthly or weekly. Once this system is in place, the Energy Manager can then monitor the IPEs and the associated action plan, which he/she can modify if necessary to achieve the company’s objectives.
To facilitate the management of the EMSn, which can be a time-consuming task, the EMS proves to be a major ally. Implemented within the plant, this tool automatically monitors consumption, analyzes and identifies optimizations and deviations. It helps validate the performance of completed projects, and facilitates collaborative work by all operational staff in the field: tracking anomalies, managing tasks, automating energy reviews, etc.
In particular, an external Energy Manager can support the customer in managing the EMS software. Céline, who provides external support to manufacturers, tells us more: “At Dametis, once the software has been implemented, we support customers according to their needs and help them detect areas for improvement based on analysis of their data and our technical expertise and knowledge of the industrial environment. In this way, we can also help them to define IPEs via simple ratios, but also via more complex modeling. These IPEs can then be transcribed into reports that we help build for analysis and communication purposes. We also maintain regular contact with our customers to adapt our support to the progress of their projects and their energy maturity, and can therefore also provide them with our expert insight into the implementation and monitoring of energy performance actions. “
What role does an Energy Manager play in an industry?
As mentioned above, the Energy Manager’s role is central to the energy strategy of the site or industrial group.
“The Energy Manager has to keep to objectives, which he/she must report to management as well as to the various teams (quality, production), especially as the improvement actions he/she undertakes can have a direct impact on his/her teams, who must therefore be informed and adhere to them”, explains Céline.
As part of ISO 50001 certification, and at specific energy-related meetings held at regular intervals, for example, the Energy Manager must report on energy KPIs and initiatives implemented to improve the site’s energy performance.
In addition to his/her internal role, this energy expert also plays a key role in the choice of suppliers. He/she ensures that their offers are aligned with the Group’s energy performance objectives, values and roadmap.
He/she has an important role to play with suppliers, whom he/she must choose in line with the actions taken, the values and the roadmap adopted by the Group.
Among other things, and as Céline says: “The Energy Manager must ensure regular exchanges with management and teams from production, quality, etc. in the form of working groups. In fact, it’s vital for him to be able to rely on his colleagues, and for them to be able to get involved in the approach and share their needs and their knowledge of the processes”.
Why is an Energy Manager essential today?
Regulations on decarbonization in the industrial market are constantly evolving, and are certain to become stricter in the future, requiring manufacturers to make even greater efforts to reduce their consumption and carbon footprint. In the long term, therefore, the presence of an Energy Manager will become essential, whatever the activity or size of the industry.
Many manufacturers stress the difficulty of obtaining and maintaining ISO 50001 certification without an Energy Manager, especially when the data, however extensive (time, temperature, production, gas, flow data, etc.) is still managed using non-collaborative and ill-suited tools such as Excel.
Although today’s energy-related regulations do not all impose financial penalties, complying with the rules now will help avoid any penalties in the future. That’s why it’s strategic for manufacturers to act now and appoint an Energy Manager, whether internal, external or a mix of the two.
While the Energy Manager’s role is essential, it requires appropriate in-house training and a structured framework to facilitate decision-making. The implementation of EMS software is an effective solution to facilitate the tasks of the energy expert and accelerate the achievement of the plant’s energy optimum. It’s important to remember that the energy expert’s role is not confined to compliance, but also to optimizing energy consumption, improving competitiveness, and reducing company costs.
