Steaming Ahead Newsletter
May/June 2005

Published by the Alliance to Save Energy and the U.S. Department of Energy

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Trends in U.S. Industrial Energy Efficiency

BestPractices Program News: Three New Tip Sheets

BestPractices Program News: New Online Software

The Steam-List

Corporate Energy Management Pathfinding

Energy Management Resources from Energy Star

ACEEE Champions of Energy Efficiency Award Nominations

Events

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Portfolio Peer
Optimizing Steam System Performance Workshops
DOE Steam End-User Training
DOE Steam Specialist Qualification Training

For the full Steaming Ahead events calendar, visit http://www.steamingahead.org/calendars/

Recent research by the Alliance to Save Energy reveals that the energy efficiency of U.S. industry has improved remarkably over the past 30 years.

Since 1970, energy intensity (the amount of energy it takes to produce one dollar of goods) of the U.S. industrial sector fell by about 50 percent (see graph at right).

Perhaps half of this change is attributed to improvements in energy efficiency. The other half is largely due to structural changes in the economy and shifts in energy-intensive product manufacturing to off-shore locations. But, there are still significant opportunities to reduce the energy intensity of goods manufactured on U.S. soil.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) offers free tools and resources for industrial steam users that can help companies continue this trend. Read on to see what's new from DOE!

The DOE Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) recently added three new software tools to its existing and diverse collection of resources that help industry identify and assess energy-saving opportunities.

• The Plant Energy Profiler for the Chemical Industry (ChemPEP) is a robust tool to help chemical industry energy managers determine overall plant energy use, identify major energy-using equipment, review cost distributions, and locate areas for improvement.
• The Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Application Tool helps industrial energy users evaluate the feasibility of CHP for heating systems such as fuel-fired furnaces, boilers, ovens, heaters, and heat exchangers. Use the tool to estimate system costs and payback period and to perform "what-if" analyses for various utility costs.
• The Chilled Water System Analysis Tool (CWSAT) helps determine system energy requirements and evaluate opportunities for energy and costs savings by applying improvement measures.

To learn more about the tools, visit http://www.oit.doe.gov/bestpractices/cfml/news_detail.cfm/news_id=9036;
To download the tools free of charge, visit http://www.oit.doe.gov/bestpractices/software_tools.shtml

ITP's suite of powerful software tools can help you identify and analyze energy system savings opportunities in your facility. Now, ITP takes this assistance a step further by offering an online forum to answer questions about software tools. Visit the forum to post questions, share your knowledge, and learn from other users.

For more details and to participate, visit http://www.oit.doe.gov/bestpractices/forum/tools/

If you have technical questions about steam systems that you would like to discuss with others in the steam community, or if you want to help others overcome their technical difficulties, you might want join the email-based Steam List discussion service.

The Steam-List is an electronic mailing list (listserv) intended for discussion of steam generators, piping and equipment, including boilers, boiler feed pumps, water treatment, corrosion and scaling, valves, PRV's, traps, turbines, flow metering, heating coils, condensate pumps, district heating, system modeling, etc. There are no charges associated with being a subscriber; it's all free.

For more details and to subscribe, visit http://www.swopnet.com/engr/mail_lists/steam_list_info.html

At the National Manufacturing Week conference in Chicago, March 7 -- 10, 2005, the Alliance to Save Energy released its latest report about corporate energy management, Energy Management Pathfinding.

The report discusses manufacturers' organizational abilities and desires to implement energy efficiency and outlines the findings of 10 industrial energy management case studies. It also contains a self-test of organizational aptitude for energy efficiency and management, and a fictitious narrative (drawn from real accounts) that illustrate the barriers to energy efficiency imposed by a lack of organizational coordination.

Read the full report and related case studies at http://www.ase.org/section/topic/industry/corporate/pathfinding

Energy Star, a government-sponsored program helping businesses and individuals protect the environment through superior energy efficiency, offers a variety of resources to develop and refine corporate energy management programs at industrial facilities.

Energy management guidelines, software tools, financial impact calculators, helpful ideas for project presentation, and numerous other resources are all available free of charge from the Energy Star for Industry website http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=industry.bus_industry

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) is seeking nominations for the 2005 Industrial Champions of Energy Efficiency Awards to be presented at ACEEE's 2005 Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Industry in West Point, New York, July 19 -- 22, 2005. The nomination deadline is May 27, 2005.

Awarded at every ACEEE Summer Study, the awards recognize leadership and accomplishment in the energy-efficiency field. Winners will be selected based on demonstrated excellence in the following categories: Research and Development, Energy Policy, Implementation and Deployment, and Leadership.

For more information about the awards, to access the nomination form, and to read about past winners, please visit http://www.aceee.org/about/awards.htm or contact Neal Elliott at rnelliott@aceee.org or (202) 429-8873.

ITP's Portfolio Peer Reviews provide opportunities to review current R&D projects and bring together research and commercialization partners. Plan to attend two Peer Reviews coming soon to Chicago:

• The open sessions for the Materials Portfolio Review http://www.energetics.com/imfreview05.html, June 1 -- 3, at the Wyndham Chicago; and
• The Sensors Peer Review http://www.sensorsexpo.com/spring04/v42/index.cvn?id=10146, June 6, in conjunction with the Sensors Expo & Conference http://www.sensorsexpo.com/spring04/v42/index.cvn?id=10000, at McCormick Place.

Optimizing Steam System Performance workshops are one-day awareness workshops exposing participants to DOE BestPractices Steam software tools and resources, steam system optimization opportunities, and available industrial assistance programs.

Upcoming courses are listed below. For more information, visit the Steaming Ahead Training Calendar at http://www.steamingahead.org/calendars/. To register for a specific workshop, use the associated contact information listed below.

• Jun 15, 2005: San Diego, California
  Online: http://www.sdenergy.org/EventsDetail.asp?EventDate=6/15/2005&EventID=258&Rec=1

The DOE BestPractices Steam End-User Training course is a one-day training session covering the operation of typical steam systems and methods of system-efficiency improvements. The course encompasses steam-generation efficiency, resource-utilization effectiveness, and steam distribution system losses. The course familiarizes participants with DOE BestPractices Steam Software Tools for steam system assessment and optimization. For a full course description, visit http://www.steamingahead.org/temp/eutraining_desc.pdf.

• Jun 6, 2005: Norfolk, Virginia
  Ike Flory: email: iflory@odu.edu, 757-683-6560
• Jun 14, 2005: Moses Lake, Washington
  Phone: 509-335-2811, email: emmps@wsu.edu, online: www.regonline.com/22742
• Jun 15, 2005: Longview, Washington
  Phone: 509-335-2811, email: emmps@wsu.edu, online: www.regonline.com/22742
• Sep 7, 2005: Westville, New Jersey
  Mike Sanders: mpsanders@sunocoinc.com, 215-339-7111
• Sep 13, 2005: McKeesport, Pennsylvania
  Maggie Hall: mahall@state.pa.us, 412-442-4137

The DOE BestPractices Steam Specialist Qualification Training program is a two-and-a-half day course teaching the effective use of DOE BestPractices Steam software tools. Participants who pass the final exam are recognized by DOE as Qualified Specialists in the use of the BestPractices Steam Software Tools. For a full course description, visit http://www.steamingahead.org/temp/qstraining_desc.pdf.

• July 26 -- 28, 2005: Amherst, Massachusetts
  Eric Winkler: winkler@ceere.org, 413-545-2853
• Nov 1 -- 3, 2005: Downey, California
  Jan Berry: berryjb@ornl.gov, 865-241-1939