PERSONNEL CHANGES
We’ve seen this firsthand too many times: when key personnel leave, projects get stalled or even cancelled. Such disruptions highlight the importance of knowledge transfer and institutional memory within organizations.
Why aren’t your large commercial and industrial customers (C&I) implementing more energy efficiency projects? Even with more of your C&I customers setting aggressive sustainability and decarbonization targets, too many efficiency projects are left to wither on the vine. From personnel changes to budget constraints, many factors can impede the successful implementation of efficiency projects. Whether we’re talking about small operational changes in a retro commissioning offering or a big capital upgrade in a custom program, fewer projects mean less program savings. In this blog post, we will explore the reasons behind these challenges and introduce Energy Sensei as a tool for your programs to unstick efficiency projects and boost your program savings.
We’ve seen this firsthand too many times: when key personnel leave, projects get stalled or even cancelled. Such disruptions highlight the importance of knowledge transfer and institutional memory within organizations.
Efficiency projects must compete for funding against critical production, compliance and safety projects – largely on the merits of their direct avoided costs. When financial resources become limited, energy efficiency initiatives may be deprioritized or postponed, impeding progress towards decarbonization initiatives.
Busy staff members must prioritize safety, production and compliance over energy efficiency projects. Operational leaders and staff struggle to allocate time and effort to efficiency and decarbonization initiatives.
High initial costs and/or short payback requirements can discourage organizations from pursuing efficiency projects that are otherwise highly cost-effective steps towards decarbonization goals with a lower levelized cost of energy than alternatives such as solar power. In some cases, sites may opt for less efficient alternatives or decide not to undertake the project at all, failing to recognize the long-term decarbonization benefits and cost savings associated with energy efficiency measures.
Plant staff members responsible for overseeing energy efficiency projects may have competing priorities that supersede the urgency of decarbonization efforts. Why is this energy project important, and who does it benefit? Without a thorough understanding of the project’s benefits or its alignment with broader organizational goals, energy efficiency initiatives can be deprioritized or overlooked.
In some cases, the full range of benefits associated with energy efficiency projects, both energy-related and non-energy-related, may not be adequately understood or valued. Failure to quantify all benefits undervalues the project. For example, a site operations team may value a project based on cost reduction. A corporate sustainability team may value the same project based on carbon reduction. This undervaluing is often caused by lack of communication between teams.
Sometimes it is hard for C&I staff to fully grasp the rationale behind utilities paying them to consume less of what they sell. This skepticism and lack of trust can impede progress and deter organizations from engaging with all available utility offerings.
Lack of communication between a company’s corporate sustainability team and the local site operations team can hinder progress that would otherwise benefit both groups. Varying priorities, goals, and perspectives on decarbonization can result in delays.
Site staff may have had negative experiences with previous energy efficiency projects or emerging technologies. These very real experiences can create reluctance and skepticism, leading to a lack of willingness to proceed with new initiatives. The fear of repeating past failures can hinder progress.
In some cases, contractors or vendors working with the site may not fully comprehend the available energy efficiency incentives, fail to believe in the potential savings due to their own inexperience or lack of knowledge, or discourage program participation to avoid schedule delays. This skepticism can deter progress and prevent project advancement.
To address these challenges and unstick the progress of decarbonization projects, organizations can leverage Cascade Energy’s Energy Sensei energy performance platform. Energy Sensei provides practical solutions to overcome the obstacles mentioned above and streamline the implementation of energy efficiency offerings where C&I customers are completing many projects – big and small.
By providing a centralized platform for project documentation and information, Energy Sensei ensures that knowledge is accessible to all team members, program sponsors, and other stakeholders. This feature helps mitigate the negative impact of personnel changes by preserving institutional memory and facilitating seamless onboarding.
Rather than juggling site-by-site spreadsheets, program participants can use Energy Sensei to track, sort, and prioritize hundreds or thousands of projects across dozens or hundreds of sites. Users can quickly identify the projects with the highest cost or carbon savings potential as a priority to work on next.
With Energy Sensei, project progress, energy savings, and carbon reduction can be monitored and tracked in real-time. This data empowers organizations to demonstrate the value and benefits of efficiency projects, addressing the lack of understanding and skepticism among site contacts.
Energy Sensei enhances communication and collaboration between stakeholders such as program sponsors, corporate sustainability teams, and local site teams. Sensei bridges the gap between these teams so all project benefits can be considered, and decisions happen collaboratively.
Energy Sensei provides a platform to allocate and track financial benefits derived from energy efficiency projects. By linking these benefits to specific departments or individuals, it can motivate site staff and acknowledge their contributions. This helps overcome the lack of incentives and recognition that hinder progress.
Programs can suggest curated project ideas, offer training resources, and surface interval energy reporting all within the Energy Sensei platform. These features engage program participants and help them view the utility as a trusted energy efficiency advisor.
Get rid of the black box. Energy Sensei makes program offerings more transparent for contractors and vendors involved in energy efficiency projects. By enhancing their understanding of the program, providing tools to quantify potential savings, and streamlining the savings verification process, Energy Sensei helps overcome skepticism of black-box program delays and encourages their active participation.
Energy efficiency projects encounter various obstacles that impede their progress, putting program savings targets at risk. Utility programs can increase project completion and boost program savings by leveraging energy project collaboration tools like Energy Sensei. With features that support knowledge transfer, prioritization, performance tracking, collaboration, incentives, trust building and training, Energy Sensei empowers utility programs to unstick their project portfolio and achieve more energy savings.
Reach out to one of our Cascade Energy experts to discuss how you can license Energy Sensei for your program today.
