ESCOs and In-house Energy Managers: A Winning Team
Abstract
Over past 25+ years, energy service companies (ESCOs) have
emerged as a successful way of carrying out energy efficiency improve-
ments in industrial and institutional facilities. At the same time, facilities
are entrusting their energy manager (EM) with the responsibility of re-
ducing energy costs without fail However, this is often not accompanied
by investment capital or people support from management, or at least
not in proportion to the task assignment. One channel of supporting the
EM is through use of ESCOs in forming a “partnering” arrangement to
reduce both facility operating costs as well as provide for infrastructure
needs without new capital outlay approvals by the corporation, and
doing this rapidly. To make this partnership a success, EMs and ESCOs
need to complement each other by bringing their respective strengths to
bear on a potential energy cost savings project. The EMs can help in
optimizing project planning and the swift corporate approval process,
and the ESCO can bring focused expertise at practical energy efficiency
opportunities suited to the client, and a keen focus on swiftly complet-
ing measures for the mutual benefit of the owner and the ESCO. This
article addresses the EM/ESCO partnership, along with a recent suc-
cessful case study.
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