Industrial energy accounting and control systems: A survey

The status of energy accounting and control systems in industry within energy management systems and organizations was assessed, their main features were analyzed, and some factors influencing their efficiency were discussed. A model in which the costs of such systems and their advantages in terms of energy savings were introduced was developed. Under some simplifying assumptions concerning the cost function, it was shown that these systems were profitable only if the total energy consumption of the firm was above some minimum level E°. or if the ratio RE of energy consumption in monetary terms to the total costs of the firm was above some minimum level RE°. A survey on a number of French industrial firms or plants showed that this model described the data quite well, with E° = 3100 tons of oil-equivalent, and RE° = 0.05.