Measuring and monitoring consumption is useful for companies to improve their energy performance and to check if, thanks to the actions taken, it has been possible to obtain the predetermined results. In some cases, monitoring is even mandatory, for example to have access to incentives (such as White Certificates) or if contracts have been signed based on the achievement of specific consumption reduction targets. But how is a measurement and monitoring plan suitable for the objectives defined by the company?
Plan, Do, Check, Act
A winning energy management strategy can be divided into the following four phases:
- plan (plan): in this phase it is necessary to establish which operational plans can help improve consumption, and the possible measurement and monitoring system must of course be taken into consideration;
- do (do): here all the operational plans identified in the planning phase are carried out (including, if any, the measurement and monitoring plan);
- check (verify): the results in terms of energy savings obtained thanks to the actions implemented in the previous point must be analyzed in detail;
- act (act): based on the results of the monitoring and a punctual cost-benefit analysis, it is necessary to decide whether or not to implement further actions that will improve performance. For example, you could decide to build a new measurement and monitoring infrastructure or to improve the existing one.
It is therefore understood that, if correctly implemented, the measurement and monitoring system has a crucial importance in the creation of an energy management system that helps the company to improve continuously.
The golden rules of a monitoring system
In order for the measurement and monitoring system to be truly reliable and based on solid scientific foundations, the following guiding principles should be followed:
- exhaustiveness: it is not essential to monitor and measure all the energy quantities and parameters relating to the calculation of energy savings, but those that can be estimated and those for which the measurement is useful must be established a priori. Over time these choices can also be changed by inserting additional measuring equipment (or eliminating some of those present);
- accuracy: measuring instruments and calculation algorithms must guarantee accuracy proportionate to the purposes defined at the outset. Recall that greater accuracy comes at a cost;
- transparency: the whole process of acquiring and analyzing energy data must be transparent and the reasons why a specific monitoring and measurement method has been chosen must be clear and explicit.
The obligation of the measurement system
In some cases it is mandatory to measure the energy consumption of the production sites precisely. Let’s think about the White Certificates. To access the incentive it is necessary to calculate the energysavingsthat have been achieved by measuringthe characteristic quantities (this is the case of the “Final evaluation method”) or, in the case of “mstandardized method “, through the direct measurement of a representative sample of the operating parameters.Then there is the case of companies that fall within the scope of theEmission Trading System (ETS) or those that enter into guaranteed performance contracts (EPC-Energy Performance Contract). Then there are the large companies and large energy-consuming companies that will have to carry out the energy diagnosis by December 5, 2019 by measuring at least a part of the energy carriers.
ISO standards and the IPMVP international protocol
The two standards ISO 50006 (“Measurement of energy performance using the reference consumption and energy performance indicators”) e ISO 50015(“Measurement and verification of the energy performance of organizations”) provide the reference framework for measurement and monitoring and on how to implement the M&V plan (Measurement and Verification). The most widespread measurement and verification protocol in the world is the IPMVP (International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol), born in the United States in the nineties but now widespread all over the world. IPMVP provides procedures that help managers of M&V systems to define the most suitable measurement strategies to obtain maximum benefits and keep the energy parameters to be analyzed under control over time. The international CMVP certification (Certified Measurement & Verification Professional) of certified measurement and verification professionals is issued by the EEE(Association of Energy Engineers) in collaboration with EVO(Efficiency Valuation Organization) and is recognized worldwide.