Peter Garforth heads a specialist consultancy based in Toledo, Ohio and Brussels, Belgium. He advises major companies, cities, communities, property developers and policy makers on developing competitive approaches that reduce the economic and environmental impact of energy use. Peter has long been interested in energy productivity as a profitable business opportunity and has a considerable track record establishing successful businesses and programs in the US, Canada, Western and Eastern Europe, Indonesia, India, Brazil and China. Peter is a published author, has been a traveling professor at the University of Indiana at Purdue, and is well connected in the energy productivity business sector and regulatory community around the world. He can be reached at [email protected].
There is a wide range of a company’s energy use, carbon footprint, and cost that is rarely systematically understood, tracked, and managed. This is the embedded energy and carbon in all the supplies and services the company uses to run its business. The typical heavy hitters for a manufacturer will be raw materials, major sub-assemblies, and transportation.
Increasingly, a company’s efficiency program will manage this comprehensive understanding of its energy use. Reducing the company’s indirect use of energy is a major dimension of energy efficiency.
Taking this more holistic view of energy use, impact, and cost will almost certainly reprioritize efficiency investment priorities. As an example, on-site/near-site renewable supply is really an efficiency measure to avoid conversion and distribution losses and GHG overhead, with the added value of having nearly free fuel. Similarly, actively investing in reducing the energy footprint of a significant vendor is really an efficiency measure to avoid indirect energy use, impact, and cost. Creating this integrated and interactive picture of the company’s direct and indirect energy use and carbon impact is a pre-requisite to developing a cost-effective and flexible energy efficiency program.
At the same time, the major shifts in political priorities associated with energy will have substantial and unpredictable impacts for the company’s energy efficiency investments. The accelerated scale-up in efficiency and fossil fuel elimination will redefine the availability and costs of various technical options. In the medium term, the trend is likely to be reducing investment costs, bringing more options into the frame.
The rapid realignment of energy supply chains to reduce the political and market risk in the current primary fuel supply will likely put short- to medium-term upward pressure on today’s utility, fuel, and carbon prices, whether direct or indirect. This will enhance the value of accelerated investments in efficiency measures of all types. Energy competiveness will hinge on managing efficiency and price. New is the scale, scope, and speed of the world’s energy transformations.
This story originally appeared in the June 2022 issue of Plant Services. Subscribe to Plant Services here.
