The owners of an average small- to mid-sized industrial facility could save 10% on their power bill and $42,000 annually by auditing energy use and implementing recommendations to upgrade equipment and change operations, according to data from a U.S. Department of Energy program.
University professors and students in 24 locations across the United States are involved in the Industrial Assessments Centers (IACs). Data from those centers, the results of more than 16,000 on-site industrial assessments, suggest such significant savings, or even greater, are possible depending on the type of manufacturing facility.
For years, industrial and commercial facilities viewed their electrical utility bill as the cost of doing business. Then, those energy costs began to spike as fossil fuel costs rose to unprecedented heights – more than $100 per barrel in the case of oil. Concurrently, energy efficiency technology innovations that deliver energy savings with no sacrifice in performance (and sometimes improves in product quality, production rate, safety, etc.) accelerated in development.
