Your energy plan

Maximise your energy efficiency and cost reductions by developing a structured energy plan.

Why is an energy plan important?

Your energy plan will help you to set up a clear and effective structure for your energy efficiency activities, and ongoing management of your energy usage.

As a result, you will maximise the energy savings and improvements achieved across your business, as well as ensuring that you apply your resources (which are often limited for SMEs) as effectively as possible.

Use your energy plan to achieve greater success in:

• Identifying improvements
• Prioritising opportunities and effort
• Taking action
• Monitoring results
• Re-evaluating

The following sections describe how to set up your energy plan. As you develop each stage of your plan, use the topic pages of the PACIA energy+ portal to help collect relevant information and determine which areas to focus on in your business. These pages will also provide inspiration as you gather ideas and look for specific opportunities to take action within your business.

It is important that you consistently refer back to your energy plan as you work through the various areas of the PACIA energy+ program.

Securing internal commitment

One of the most important elements of a successful energy plan is internal commitment. This means getting the commitment of the highest management level in your business, as well as the key personnel that operate your plant.

You should aim to secure this internal commitment before you fully develop your energy plan Gaining their support means the plan can then be incorporated into daily management and operations – which will boost your results.

The following actions will help you lay the groundwork, noting that some actions will be more relevant to your current organisational arrangements than others:

• Develop an understanding of where your business is with knowledge of energy usage. For example: what energy information is currently being measured, recorded and analysed? What do personnel know about the organisation’s energy usage? What is currently being managed in terms of energy consumption?
• Establish an initial business case, or an estimate of time and resources needed as well as potential savings or areas of opportunity
• Develop a draft energy policy for your business, which sets high level goals for energy management
• Consider what internal resources would need to be appointed (people within the existing organisational structure, existing and new tools, budget allocations)
• Draw up a proposed internal structure to put energy reporting on the management team agenda and ultimately embed energy efficiency into the organisational culture

You should also appoint a champion – somebody within your business that will lead and drive the energy plan. However it must be made clear that this champion is not responsible for all of the work associated with the plan.

Structuring your plan

Develop your energy plan according to these six steps:

Step 1: Determine your current baseline

• Define a 12 month period that will become your baseline (usually the year just passed or the first year of your plan)
• Collect detailed data on where, when and how energy is being used in your business, and what it costs - use PACIA energy+ Topic #1 and the CEFIC Care+ Handbook to help with this
• Set up a system to track and record energy data, if it doesn’t already exist

Step 2: Set your targets

• Use your baseline to estimate potential energy efficiency improvements in different areas of your business - consult the relevant resources provided throughout the PACIA energy+ portal to see what improvements are possible
• Consider opportunities in three areas: efficiency of normal operations (“good housekeeping); modifications with reasonable returns; and strategic investments with longer payback periods
• Run brainstorming sessions with various staff to generate ideas
• Establish an initial list of targets, ensuring your targets are measurable and challenging but achievable, and remembering not to try and do everything at once

Step 3: Develop your action list

• Hold internal discussions to review and decide on the specific actions that will be undertaken to achieve each target
• Prioritise your actions – this can be done in a number of ways including the biggest savings, the quickest results, the least resources required, or the least disruption to your business
• Use the PACIA energy+ topic pages and resources for detailed information and ideas
• Establish a reporting framework that you can use over time to communicate progress against the actions
• Establish a schedule of when the actions will be initiated and completed
• Confirm the resources that have been secured for each action (personnel, budget, equipment, other)
• Identify any training needed for staff involved in implementing the actions
• Document all of these details so that you can monitor, review and update later

Step 4: Implement the actions

• Kick off the actions
• Ensure the energy management champion oversees the implementation of the actions
• Check progress against the action list regularly (ideally monthly)
• Ensure regular progress reports are provided to all personnel including management

Step 5: Monitor, evaluate and celebrate

• Monitor and evaluate your overall progress at least every 12 months, if not more regularly during the early stages of your energy plan
• Analyse your actual energy consumption and trends against the targets set
• Do physical walk-arounds of the plant to check on energy practices, housekeeping and equipment condition – all of which can impact on your energy efficiency
• Identify, document and share any relevant best practices with all personnel
• Talk to key personnel involved in the actions and get their feedback
• Identify any issues and new opportunities
• Communicate the results and achievements to all personnel – it is very important to celebrate success and recognise those involved
• Consider promoting your energy efficiency improvements in communications and marketing to your customers and stakeholders

Step 6: Reassess your energy plan

• Involve all key personnel in this step
• Revisit your energy policy and overarching objectives
• Reassess the tools, systems and processes you use to measure, set targets and actions, evaluate and report
• Reconfirm the internal commitment

 Need more guidance?

If you need more guidance in setting up your energy plan, the CEFIC Care+ Handbook on Energy Efficiency Best Practices is a useful reference. It was developed specifically for chemical SMEs in Europe, but is equally applicable to Australian chemicals and plastics SMEs. The Handbook outlines an approach that is consistent with the stepped process outlined above, and provides further detail on each of the steps.

• Download the CEFIC Care+ Handbook on Energy Efficiency Best Practices

External assistance

You may find that you need additional help at some stage of your energy plan, beyond the support available through the PACIA energy+ portal and events. If this is the case, it might be useful to consider engaging an external energy efficiency expert.

There are many energy efficiency consultants and firms offering a range of services to businesses, including provision of advice, auditing of your energy data and reports, review of your operational energy usage, and identification of energy efficiency opportunities.

If you decide to seek external assistance, we encourage you to explore the many options available to secure the most suitable offering for your business needs.