Energy
Accounting |
With oil selling at over $100 a barrel now, and global oil production apparently leveling off, it seems clear that we are leaving behind the time when energy was cheap, easily available, and taken for granted. From here on out, energy is going to be on our minds much more than it has been. And because we can’t manage what we don’t measure, it seems likely that our use of energy accounting practices will become as common, and important, as our use of financial accounting ones. The California Energy Commission has called energy accounting “a key tool in managing energy costs”. Effective energy accounting provides a basis for deciding where to make energy saving investments, and for evaluating the energy and financial return on these investments. Reports generated by these systems provide valuable feedback on progress toward energy reduction goals. Energy accounting enables cost/benefit analyses of your energy options, such as switching to alternative energy suppliers. Developing an energy accounting system is not rocket science, but development will go easier if you have someone on staff, or on call, who understands the economic and environmental factors that are changing the energy equation, knows how to analyse your use of energy, and has the expertise with computers and education that are needed to develop good systems. I’ve been working with managers and decision-makers to develop resource information systems for over 25 years. I have studied in depth the economic and environmental concerns that are changing the energy equation. I am a skilled researcher and reporter with lots of experience working with the details of resource use. Finally, I know something about how people learn, and how computers can be used to help them learn more effectively. The assistance I can provide comes in the form of reports on specific, one-off studies, and in the form of systems that reliably generate reports on a regular basis. |
Links to some Energy Accounting resources
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