Commercial and industrial equipment
This page outlines activities that are eligible under the Energy Savings Scheme and how to calculate the reduced electricity consumption resulting from the new equipment, process or system
Improving processes or equipment can result in significant energy savings.
Including an improvement project in the Energy Savings Scheme can provide additional revenue from the creation and sale of energy savings certificates, and improve return on investment. In some cases, this additional revenue can make marginal projects viable.
This section deals with calculating energy savings from specific projects and equipment using the Project Impact Assessment Method of the ESS Rule.
Energy savings activities
Projects can normally be included if they include:
- replacement of out-of-date equipment
- enhancement of your existing operations
- specific reducion of energy use, or
- a combination of all three.
If you save electricity, the megawatt hours (MWh) savings can most likely be translated into energy savings certificates by an Accredited Certificate Provider if production and service levels are maintained.
Common equipment level, or end-user equipment focused, energy savings opportunities can be found in:
- compressed air systems (that are oversized or leak)
- variable speed drives (VSDs) fitted to inefficient motors
- modifications to large refrigeration systems
- replacement or modification of HVAC Chillers and systems
- decommissioning or retiring of old plant made redundant by more specialised equipment.
Using the Project Impact Assessment Method
The Project Impact Assessment Method uses engineering assessments to calculate the reduced electricity consumption resulting from the new equipment, process or system.
The Project Impact Assessment Method is likely to be an appropriate way to quantify the energy savings from your energy savings project where:
- the energy savings are small compared to the overall site consumption
- unexplained variation in baseline energy consumption is high
- data for past electricity consumption at a site is unavailable.
It is typically used for activities in industrial or commercial premises where energy savings can be quantified through a combination of metering and engineering analysis.
Your application to become an Accredited Certificate Provider will need to demonstrate that the method you use to calculate the energy saving is based on accepted engineering practices, and that any assumptions included in the method are reasonable and well based in fact.
It is possible to use the Project Impact Assessment Method approach to either make an upfront assessment of future energy savings and ‘forward create’ energy savings certificates, or periodically (ie. annually) after the energy savings occur.
Find out more about calculating energy savings using the Project Impact Assessment Method.
Other methods for calculating energy savings
In some cases, where a number of energy savings activities have been carried out on a commercial or industrial site, it may be preferable to group the energy savings together and apply a baseline approach.
Find out more about site-based programs.