Energy auditing for IPPC facilities in Ireland

The Rising Energy Demand

Fuel Sources

IPC Licensing  Principal policy response to regulating industrial pollution in Ireland  Addresses all sites with significant polluting potential  Commenced in 1994  Covers all potential environmental impacts of a site  Use of BATNEEC (e.g. ELV’s)  Requirement for Environmental Management System to drive continual environmental improvement

IPPC Directive  Energy efficiency auditing was not a specific requirement of the older IPC licences  In anticipation of the transposition of the directive into Irish National legislation, energy efficiency audits became mandatory in IPC licences from 1999 onwards  IPPC Directive transposed into Irish National legislation in 2003

IPC Licence Requirements  Audit to be carried out within one year of date of grant of licence  Nature and extent of audit programme to be agreed in advance with EPA  Audit recommendations to be incorporated into sites Environmental Management Programme  Summary of audit findings to be submitted to the EPA  Audit to be repeated at intervals as required by the EPA

What is an Energy Efficiency Audit?  A systematic process to determine the quantity and cost of each form of energy to a building, process, manufacturing unit, piece of equipment or a whole site  Carried out to cover a given period of time

Development of the Guidance Note  Published in 2003  Designed to be a simple and generic guide to the audit process  Can be used by an on-site operator or contractor  Encourages a continuous, cyclical auditing process  Also acts as a source of information on energy mangement (websites, reference documents)

Overview of Guidance Note  Process is broken down into discrete steps  Preparation  Execution  Analysis  Reporting

Preparation  Designation of responsibilities  Determination of scope of audit (e.g. areas to include in audit, collection of existing energy data, etc.)

Execution  Assessment of each of the energy-consuming systems on site  Comparison of sites energy management system with best practice  Guidance is provided for these steps

Analysis  Energy performance of systems (or whole site) is assessed using appropriate energy performance indicators (EPI’s)  EPI’s provide a means of quantifying energy costs and consumption against important factors such as level of production or site occupancy, etc.  Energy performance can be benchmarked against EPI’s from other similar sites

Analysis (Cont’d)  A list of recommendations is identified to improve energy performance at the site  A set of actions is developed with responsibility, target dates and resources being allocated for implementation  Guidance is provided in quantifying actions in terms of energy savings, cost savings and return on investment  Recommendations for action must be incorporated as Objectives and Targets into the sites Environmental Management Programme (requirement of the IPC licence)

Reporting  It is a licence requirement that two reports be prepared for each energy audit  Main report – to be maintained on site  Summary report – to be submitted to the EPA as part of the sites Annual Environmental Report

Conclusion  Response from Industry has been positive  Too soon yet to say what impact the Guidance Note will have on Irish Industry in terms of energy efficiency  IPC licensing system has probably had a positive impact on the industrial and energy sectors with regard to energy efficiency over the last ten years

Eco-efficiency of the Industry Sector

Eco-efficiency of the Energy Sector

Conclusion (Cont’d)  Hopefully, the development of a lower energy intense economy has begun in Ireland

Where to find the Guidance Note  Energy Guidance Note is available for download at the EPA’s website at  Can be found at