NEW ENERGY ASSESSMENT STANDARDS

ASME will publish four new standards this month that establish requirements for conducting energy assessments at industrial facilities.




Improving the efficiency of industrial systems increases profitability and reliability, and makes better use of assets. Many industrial facilities have the potential to increase the efficiency of their systems, but have difficulty doing so because there is no market definition for energy efficiency assessment services. Lack of a definition creates problems for service providers in establishing market value for their services and for consumers in determining the relative quality of assessment services.



The standards establish procedures for assessments of a facility's entire systems, from energy inputs to the work performed.



The four standards to be published are:



ASME EA-1-2009 Energy Assessment for Process Heating Systems.



ASME EA-2-2009 Energy Assessment for Pumping Systems.



ASME EA-3-2009 Energy Assessment for Steam Systems.



ASME EA-4-2010 Assessment for Compressed Air Systems.



The energy assessment standards are intended to assist plant personnel in identifying cost-effective projects that often have limited capital requirements. They address the topics and requirements for organizing and conducting assessments, analyzing the data collected, and reporting and documentation.



An assessment may also include recommendations for improving resource utilization, reducing per-unit production cost, and improving environmental performance. These recommended practices will be provided in Guidance Documents which ASME expects to publish by mid-2010.



The new standards are a contribution to the framework for assisting U.S. industry to meet the energy intensity improvement criteria of Superior Energy Performance, the program of the U.S. Council for Energy-Efficient Manufacturing, a partnership of U.S. industry, government, and other organizations.



ASME made four Draft Standards for Trial Use available in late 2008 and asked for comments. The systems assessment community offered extensive comments, and revisions were made to the draft standards and Guidance Documents to better reflect current practices, procedures, and improvements. RYAN CRANE