Introducing Starlight

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For many companies, energy use is the second highest cost after payroll, and for some organizations, it is actually the highest cost.

Contrary to popular belief, energy costs are not a fixed overhead, and there is often huge potential for making savings through reducing wastage.

Energy wastage does not just cost money, it also results in increased carbon emissions. As a result of energy price rises and more stringent environmental legislation, there is continuing pressure on all businesses to reduce their consumption and emissions in order to remain competitive.

Much of this waste can be avoided by greater energy awareness.

you cannot manage what you cannot measure. Please visit Anacle Starlight™ site for more information.

Energy Costs and Global Warming Trends

Energy costs have been rising globally for the past decade, fuelled by unprecedented demand and continual geopolitical uncertainties. Petroleum, the number one source of energy worldwide, has seen an almost exponential increase in price over the past decade.

Energy demand has similar shot up, as major economies such as China continues to grow at breakneck pace. To address the growing shortage, governments globally are faced with an important decision:

Do we allocate resources to build more power plants or to invest in energy efficiency technologies?

Analysis by the Alliance to Save Energy reveals that energy efficiency - the energy saved by improvements in energy efficiency technologies implemented between 1973 and 1998 - made energy efficiency the nation's second largest source of energy (and largest domestic resource) by 1998!

The clear importance of energy efficiency has led governments of developed countries worldwide to devote substantial resources to promote and implement the right policies and regulations.

In addition to rising costs and scarcity, fossil fuels (which make up more than 85% of energy sources worldwide) have a significant impact on the environment. Carbon emission from fossil fuel consumption is the primary cause of global warming and extreme weather events.

Thus, beyond controlling energy costs, sustainable use of energy (especially the regulation of carbon emissions) is an important concern for governments worldwide. Emissions regulation caps the amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted from large installations, such as power plants and factories. In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol is signed by many countries to regulate human activities that harm the environment. It took effect in 2005.

Carbon emissions trading involve the trading of permits to emit carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gases, calculated in tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, tCO2). It is one of the ways countries can meet their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon emissions and thereby mitigate global warming. In carbon emissions trading market, companies and buildings are given carbon emission quotas, and can buy and sell carbon "credits" if they exceed or under-utilize their quotas. 107 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (tCO2) have been exchanged through projects in 2004, a 38% increase relative to 2003 (78 million tCO2).

As the environmental impact of carbon emissions becomes more serious, many countries have started to implement carbon emission regulation policies and launch carbon trading markets.

What is Energy Profiling?

Energy Profiling is defined as a detailed study of the energy consumption patterns of the major systems and equipment of a building. Profiling is necessary so experts can find out which systems are consuming excessive energy, and at what times and patterns such energy consumption spurts occur.

In addition to helping experts analyze energy usage patterns, energy profiling leads naturally to carbon (emissions) profiling. This is because the amount of carbon dioxide emitted is related to the amount of power consumed. An immediate corollary is that an energy efficiency scheme is equivalent to a carbon emissions reduction scheme, so efforts for the 2 goals always go synchronized.

Why is Energy Profiling Important?

Buildings and infrastructure setups make up a significant proportion of the total assets of any organization. They are the leading consumer of energy worldwide, and thus would be a significant target of energy efficiency and carbon emissions regulation policies.

The energy consumption of facilities in open-market developed countries (prior to 2004 and before the recent fuel hikes) was USD 2.17 per square foot, compared to USD 1.82 per square foot for the rest of facility expenditure (maintenance, etc). Thus a large commercial building of 500,000 square feet would expend more than USD 1 million annually on energy bills alone!

According to research by the Hein Consulting Group:

up to 30% of a building's energy costs is due to poor building design, lack of heat recovery, inefficient equipment and poor power factor;
up to another 20% is due to outright waste, sub-optimal operating policy, as well as the landlord's inability to forecast demand and buy energy when it is cheap on the energy trading markets.

In the commercial real estate market of the USA alone, there are more than 4 billion square feet of office space, 13 billion square feet of industrial facilities and 6 billion square feet of retail properties; the energy wasted annually can easily exceed USD 15 billion!

Potential solutions to address the energy loss problems include energy saving designs, programs and policies, as well as effective energy trading on the newly liberated energy markets (North America, Western Europe, NICs).

However, you cannot implement any of these programs if you do not have cost-effective and quality energy profiling!

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