Plant Services - November 2007 - (Page 29)

energy eXPerT Why is best practice transfer so hard? In the offing is a 20% to 30% improvement in energy productivity I t’s increasingly common to hear industrial and pocreep in, where experiences in a distant land might seem less litical leaders making strong statements about why valid than those of the local domestic market. managing energy is strategically vital for the future. Healthy companies explore differences through objective From the way the speakers underline the growing energy benchmarking, and if substantial energy or climate produccost risk, fear of unreliable supplies, and effect on the tivity opportunities are discovered, trigger a rapid and wideworld’s climate, a naïve observer would naturally assume spread best-practice transfer program. At least one company they’re scouring the planet for proven best practices, I work with recognizes that industries in Sweden, Japan and technologies and policies that could be implemented to Germany have sophisticated approaches to heat recovery, savreduce energy risks and capture benefits. In reality, this is ing vast quantities of cooling water, natural gas and heating rare. Why, and what can we do about it? oil, and reducing capital investments in equipThe easiest reason to understand is good ment dedicated to getting rid of waste heat. old fashioned hypocrisy. Energy and climate Rather than defend the status quo, the comchange are fashionable topics, prompting pany systematically explores heat recovery opIt is an leaders to pay lip service to how engaged they portunities at many of its sites. One I visited reunderstandable cently may completely eliminate the use of for are, to overstate their achievements, and to human reaction natural gas for space heating by recovering heat understate the challenges of achieving real changes. In these cases, an underlying lack of to explain away from a range of electrically driven processes. belief in the importance of energy productiv- these differences Government communications and policies ity means there’s little appetite to seek out and can perversely reinforce barriers to best pracusing various implement best practices. The best advice to tice transfer. In the United States, for example, rationalizations. recent policy has heavily emphasized future an energy manager in this difficult situation is to use transparent data and the budgeting technology in resolving energy and climate process to hold management accountable to challenges. Without belittling new technoltheir words, rather than their intents. ogy, an equal emphasis on rapidly deploying Disbelief is another barrier to best practices. This column global best practices would deliver large-scale immediate rehas repeatedly cited examples of energy management and sults. However, given that many of these would benefit forgreenhouse gas reduction programs that deliver 20% to 40% eign companies, and require deep national and local policy gains. But, after years of being told that a couple of percent changes, there’s political resistance to this approach. per year is the best that can be achieved, it’s perhaps unA company, however, must not have similar reluctance. derstandable that breakthroughs are viewed more as selling Its responsibility to customers and investors is to deliver the snake oil than reality. Here, the energy manager must estabbest possible results, irrespective of where the technology lish solid benchmarking data that challenge disbelief. or practices originated. Many recent energy productivity Unwillingness to adopt a global and industry-wide view is breakthroughs came from non-English-speaking countries, likely the most common problem. The reasons are complex, and much might be missed by Googling in English alone. and often extremely personal. The gaps are large, ranging The bottom line is, believe that breakthroughs are posfrom 20% to 30% in industry productivity, to 40% to 50% in sible. There’s no place for xenophobia and chauvinism, and transportation, and 100% or more in homes and buildings. local government policies might not paint a complete picWithin industries, ranges from best-in-class to less effiture. To survive competitively, a company must deploy imcient players often are equally wide. It’s an understandable mediately available best practices, wherever they exist. human reaction to explain away the differences using rationalizations, many of which would do credit to an alcoholic Peter Garforth is principal of Garforth International LLC, Toledo, justifying excessive drinking. Hidden nationalism also can Ohio. He can be reached at garforthp@cs.com. November 2007 www.PLANTSERVICES.com 29 http://www.plantservices.com/voices/energy_expert.html http://www.PLANTSERVICES.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Plant Services - November 2007

Plant Services - November 2007 Contents New Tools Letters Let Us Know Where to Put the Gas Up and Running How are you Fighting Crisis? What Works Why is the Best Practice Transfer so Hard? Who are you Going to Call? Chained to Power Mobile Mindset Making Money in the Lube Lab Grabbing a Moving Target Bagging the BTUs Keeping Mellow Preserving Health and Safety The Power of Reliability Excellence

Plant Services - November 2007

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