Eco-friendly sources of energy, also known as Green energy or renewable energy sources, have acquired tremendous attention and acceptance in the past few years as federal and some state governments, organizations and people all over the country are embracing their environmental responsibilities. The renewable energy sector is almost evenly divided between modern and traditional renewable sources. Modern renewable energy includes solar, wind, hydro power, and geothermal. Traditional renewable energy sources include biomass, which is usually employed in rural regions of developing countries.
Many businesses have or will be introduced to renewable energy technologies whether it be political, economical or for reliability or power quality. Some businesses are evaluating distributed generation methods like efficient gas turbines to reduce their energy footprint employing co-generation, also known as Combined Heat and Power (CHP), is the on-site production of multiple types of energy — usually electricity, heat and/or cooling — from a single source of fuel. Co-generation often replaces the traditional methods of acquiring energy, such as purchasing electricity from the power grid and separately burning natural gas or oil in a furnace to produce heat or steam. While the traditional method of purchasing electric energy from a utility is convenient, it is very inefficient and wastes almost 75 percent of the energy in the original fuel due to production and transportation losses.
All of these energy strategies receive an initial analysis that makes assumptions on savings, ROI, Spark Spreads, TMO, or forecast demand charges or energy pricing. These strategies might also include , incentives or rebates from either Federal and/or State Governments. What the industry lacks is having in-house programs and resources in-place to accurately plan, measure and verify these assumptions over time utilizing existing technologies.
Measurement and Verification demonstrates how much energy the Energy Conservation Measure or reduced Energy Costs has avoided using, rather than the total cost saved, and the impact of a new Energy System. The total cost saved can be affected by many factors, such as equipment costs, including installation costs, energy prices, fuel charges, efficiency, weather conditions or technology changes. The Measurement and Verification process enables the energy savings delivered by the Energy Conservation Measure or new the Energy System to be isolated and fairly evaluated.
A key part of the Measurement and Verification is the development of an ‘Plan’, which defines how the savings analysis will be conducted before the Energy Conservation Measure or new Energy System is introduced. This provides a degree of objectivity that is absent, if the savings are simply evaluated after implementation.
As traditional generation, like coal, becomes environmentally expensive or unpopular, along with an aging electrical grid, the demand for renewable energy sources and distributed generation will significantly increase.