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STEP 2.5: Conduct Technical Assessments & Audits

Knowing your organization's baseline energy use and the relative performance of your entire portfolio is only part of the information needed. Periodic assessment of the performance of equipment, processes, and systems will help you identify opportunities for improvement.

Energy audits are comprehensive reviews conducted by energy professionals and/or engineers that evaluate the actual performance of a facility's systems and equipment against their designed performance level or against best available technology. The difference between these is the potential for energy savings.

The main steps for conducting technical assessments and audits are:

  • Assemble audit team — Expertise should cover all energy-using systems, processes, and equipment. Include facility engineers, system specialists, and other support. Outside support may be helpful and provide an objective perspective or specific expertise.
  • Plan and develop an audit strategy — Identify and prioritize systems for evaluation, assign team members to tasks, and schedule completion dates for the activities. Use benchmarking results to identify poor-performing facilities whose equipment and systems should be targeted for evaluation.
  • Create audit report — Based on the audit results, produce a detailed summary of actual steps that can be taken to reduce energy use. The report should recommend actions from simple adjustments in operation to equipment replacement. Estimates of resource requirements for completing actions should be included.

Suggestions

Use the ENERGY STAR Service & Product Directory to help you locate energy service providers such as utilities and energy service companies that may be qualified to serve as part of the audit team.

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