Newswise — Helping hundreds of manufacturing industries across the United States increase energy efficiency requires a balance of teaching and training, blended with scientific guidance and technical expertise. It’s a formula for success that researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been providing to the Department of Energy’s Better Plants program for more than a decade.
ORNL’s support for the program has led to Better Plants partners achieving a cumulative $11.8 billion in cost savings, 2.4 quadrillion British thermal units of energy savings and 147 million metric tons of carbon dioxide avoided, as highlighted in the most recent progress report released by DOE’s Better Buildings Initiative. The Better Plants program has also helped to improve the average annual energy intensity rate by 1.8%. Energy intensity is a measure of overall inefficiency, calculating the amount of energy an industry uses to produce a product or service.
“Reducing energy intensity is one of the goals of Better Plants and the challenge we’re presented with is reducing that by 25% over the next 10 years,” said Sachin Nimbalkar, who leads ORNL’s Manufacturing Energy Efficiency Research and Analysis group, or MEERA, which supports the program. “Manufacturing industries, particularly the industrial sector, account for one-third of the nation’s energy consumption. If we can impact the energy intensity rate, we’re at the same time uncovering potential energy and cost savings that can be reinvested back into the workforce and the economy.”
To reach that number, energy efficiency and decarbonization experts in the MEERA group work to encourage industries and water utilities to become a partner in the voluntary program. Currently, more than 280 partners have joined the Better Plants program representing automobile and transportation industries, food and beverage, consumer products, chemicals and metals, as well as water and electric utilities. Since the program’s inception in 2011, partners have reported energy data across 3,600 industrial plants.
Personalized energy planning
Becoming a Better Plants program partner provides industries with access to a technical account manager from ORNL who works one-on-one to develop an energy management plan, identify savings opportunities and track performance metrics. Partners also receive support through onsite visits and trainings, including Energy Bootcamps hosted at DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, or MDF. Located at ORNL, MDF is a nationwide consortium of collaborators working to innovate, inspire and catalyze the transformation of U.S. manufacturing. The Better Plants program is supported by DOE’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office, or IEDO.
Launched in 2022, Energy Bootcamps are intense four-day training sessions where sustainability managers, energy engineers, plant operators and maintenance professionals participate in hands-on demonstrations with the ORNL team to understand how best to execute energy saving measures in their respective facilities. Since their creation, the team has conducted approximately 120 Bootcamps.
“Onsite in-plant trainings, where we’re on the ground working at the industry’s location for several days, have long been a standard part of our curriculum,” Nimbalkar said. “The Energy Bootcamps provide an additional opportunity for partners to network and learn from each other, too.”
Energy Bootcamp trainings were essential to building a network of partners after the COVID-19 pandemic when onsite trainings moved to virtual platforms, which continue to be offered with an expanded webinar catalogue. Virtual and in-person trainings focus on process heating and steam systems, pumping systems, waste reduction and compressed air, wastewater treatment, ammonia refrigeration and industrial fans. Participants can learn how to use diagnostic tools – such as infrared cameras, leak detectors and combustion analyzers – to…
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