Water Management ANEW OPPORTUNITY FOR ENERGY MANAGERS

Abstract

Mana ger s in the energy business have demon strated amazing ver-
sa tility over the last two plu s decades. As the immed iate impact of the
ene rgy crisis wan ed , new way s were found to justify ene rgy manage-
m ent efforts through financial analysis. Sound rea soning wa s also de vel-
ope d by creat ive ene rgy manag ers to pre sent the far-reaching benefits to
an organization's mission from en erg y managem ent. The field , alr ead y
d emanding trem end ou s br eadth of skill with multipl e di sciplines of
engineering , financ e and creative implementations such as performance
c ontra cting, continue d to respond to challenges.
Ene rgy mana gers ha ve often been tho se creative and capab le indi-
vid uals in an y or gan izations that took on new challenges, such as en sur-
ing com plian ce with en vironmental regulations. The complexities associ-
ated with de regulation have fu rther expan ded the en erg y manag er' s rol e
to also include procurement initially for gas and now for electricity .
With all the changes and complexities that energy manager s ha ve
ad d ressed in the pa st, a qu estion for speculation is what crisis w ill chal-
lenge these pr ofessionals in the next millennium? The author believes
that the gr eat est challenge of the ne xt millennium will be water.
Is th ere a sca rcity or crisis reg ard ing this simple resource? In fact a
m ajor crisis does exis t with re gard to water. There is a critical and grow-
ing need to sa ve wat er , as we hav e seen throu ghout th e United States
and the world. Only 3% of the Earth's water is fresh and it is essential
for human life. The importance of the is sue ma y be seen in the fact that
the Federal Ene rgy Management Program, and the Pre sid ent' s Executive
O rde r on r edu cin g cons um ption, now include mandat es for water sav -
ings