The Changing Role of the Energy Manager

Abstract

The traditional energy manager has been primarily focused on the
demand side management or energy conservation aspects of energy
management. As a result, the energy manager’s responsibilities were
limited to finding energy conservation opportunities (ECOs), perform-
ing economic justifications, and submitting proposals to management
for funding. In many cases, the ECOs had to compete with operational
projects for capital funding or the energy manager had to be able to sell
and manage a performance contract, a formidable task in itself.
In addition to the above requirements, today’s energy manager
must take on a much broader scope of responsibilities and authority to
accomplish the objectives of an energy program. The past few years
have made CEOs and CFOs aware of the importance of corporate en-
ergy management and its effect on the company’s financial bottom line
and stock valuation.
Today’s energy manager must understand financial and physical
energy risk management and be able to value corporate energy risk with
regard to reliability and energy costs. Once the energy manager defines
corporate risk, a plan must be developed to mitigate that risk through
alternate energy sources, financial derivatives, and/or load management
plans. These plans must take into account lost production costs and the
possibility of future energy risks in the cost-benefit analysis.
From an implementation standpoint, today’s energy manager must
have the authority to make the end users of energy responsible for their
energy consumption. The energy manager must also have direct input
into the day-to-day decision making if the corporate energy program
objectives are to be achieved.