Aims of Energy Audit

In any organization, the three top operating expenses are frequent found to be energy, labour and materials. Amongst the three, energy emerges as the top ranking area for cost reduction. Energy audit could help us know more about the ways energy and fuel are used in the industry, and help in identifying the areas while waste can occur and where scope for improvement exists.

Energy audit is carried out along with the following aims:

a)  Review and upgrading of process for energy accounting;

b) Review of technical efficiency of system elements in sub-transmission and distribution (ST&D) system;

c)   Analysis of the methods for measuring the energy received, energy billed and the corresponding revenue collection;

d)  Review of performance of equipment, distribution transformers, meters, etc.

e)  Segregation of technical and non-technical losses; and

f)   Establishment of norms for checking the consumption of several categories of consumers and whole energy balance in the circles.

In common, energy audit facilitates the translation of ideas about energy conservation within reality, through lending technically feasible solutions with economic and other organizational considerations within a specified time frame. The primary goal of energy audit is to determine ways of decreasing energy consumption per unit of product output or to lower operating costs.

For a distribution utility, energy is a commodity and its monitoring is necessary.