USING KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS TO MANAGE ENERGY COSTS

摘要

Modern management systems rely heavily on informationrntechnology to set goals, track performance andrncommunicate results. Energy management approachesrn(such as those offered by the US Department of Energyrnand Natural Resources Canada) and measurement andrnverification protocols (such as IPMVP 2001) oftenrnhighlight the importance an information system has inrnmaximizing results. The increasing adoption of energyrninformation systems has led, however, to an interestingrnparadox: while it is now cost-effective to collect muchrnmore data than ever before, many energy managers findrnthemselves drowning in the volume of data generated.rnBusiness information systems faced a similar challenge arndecade ago, and it is now common practice to use KeyrnPerformance Indicators (KPIs) to summarize volumes ofrndata into a few critical “nuggets” of actionablerninformation. These KPIs provide both the metrics thatrnwill be used to determine the success of a business plan asrnwell as the timely information managers need to trackrnperformance and make adjustments to ensure success. Arnsimilar approach can be used in the practice of energyrnmanagement, where KPIs can be designed to measure thernsuccess of key elements in an energy management planrnand provide energy managers with the timely “nuggets”rnof information they need to ensure success.rnThis paper describes how to define and use KPIs to trackrnthe performance and measure the success of an energyrnmanagement plan. A framework is provided to assist inrnselecting measurable goals from an energy managementrnplan and determine the raw data and processing requiredrnto generate the associated KPIs.