Text 2. Energy Management in Municipal Buildings

The current energy situation is having an ever-worsening financial impact on building operational budgets. More and more owners / operators are turning to their consultants with a plea ‘to do something … and do it quickly’ to establish an effective energy management tool.

Introducing energy management in public and residential buildings is very important if you want to reduce energy consumption and increase profitability. The easiest and most cost effective energy-saving opportunities typically require little or no capital investment.

The following steps can be identified in energy management process:

• metering energy consumption and collecting data;

• analyzing and finding opportunities to save energy;

• targeting people to save energy;

• planning and tracking the progress at saving energy.

As a rule of thumb: the more data you can get, and the more detailed they are the better.

The old school approach to energy-data collection is to manually read meters once a week or once a month. This is quite a chore, and unfortunately weekly or monthly data collection is hopelessly inadequate when compared with the data that come easily and automatically from modern metering equipment.

The modern approach to energy-data collection is to fit interval-metering systems that automatically measure and record energy consumption at short, regular intervals such as every 15-minutes or half an hour.

Detailed interval energy consumption data make it possible to see patterns of energy waste that would be impossible to see otherwise. Weekly or monthly meter readings can show you how much energy you’re using at different times of the day, or on different days of the week.

Looking at detailed interval energy data is the ideal way to find routine energy waste. You can check whether staff and timers are switching things off without having to patrol the building day and night, and, with a little detective work, you can usually figure out who or what is causing the energy wastage that you will inevitably find.

For example, if you’ve identified that a lot of energy is being wasted by equipment left on over the weekends you can:

a) use your interval data to calculate how much energy (in kwh) is used each weekend;

b) estimate the proportion of that energy that is wasted (by equipment that should be switched off);

c) using the figures, calculate the total kwh that are wasted each weekend.

Analysis is one of the most important tasks in energy management. Deviations have to be analyzed, partly through control of the buildings and the way they are run, partly by critical control of the budget assumptions. It is on the basis of these analyses that the energy manager is able to make proposals for changes and improvements.

The next step is sometimes difficult to make people aware of the potential energy savings and to make them act in an energy responsible manner. One of the simplest ways to save a significant amount of energy is to encourage staff to switch equipment off at the end of each working day. Use promotional material, internal news letters and staff meeting to raise staff awareness. Although you may make one individual responsible for energy efficiency, the involvement and commitment of all staff is crucial to achieve a success.

Once you’ve taken actions to save energy, it’s important that you find out how effective your actions have been. Usually the results for the first months of operation of energy management system have triggered savings of 15-26%. Energy savings that come from behavioural changes (e.g. getting people to switch off their computers before going home) need ongoing attention to ensure that they remain effective and achieve their maximum potential.

Much energy can be saved by installing energy-saving equipment, improving insulation of doors and windows, upgrading heating / cooling systems. If you have invested money into new equipment, you’ll probably want to prove that you’ve achieved the energy savings you predicted. Improvements already achieved should be incorporated into the new budget for the next period.

Exercise 17. Translate the following words and word combinations. Use them in sentences of your own.

Municipal buildings, ever-worsening situation, effective energy management, increase profitability, require capital investment, once a week, monthly data, interval-metering system, regular intervals, routine waste, patrol the building, figure out the reason, cause energy wastage, ongoing attention.

Exercise 18. Translate the following sentences into English.

1. Економія електроенергії у житлових будинках є нагальною потребою сьогодення. 2. Високі ціни на енергоносії повинні стимулювати людей заощаджувати енергію. 3. Скорочення споживання електроенергії є однією з найбільш суттєвих проблем для України, яка зараз знаходиться у складній енергетичній ситуації. 4. Старий традиційний підхід до збирання даних про використану енергію зводився до щомісячного зняття показників лічильників. 5. Вчені працюють над удосконаленням комп’юте-ризованих систем збирання даних енергоспоживання. 6. Виробни-цтво і використання будь-якого виду енергії супроводжується забрудненням довкілля. 7. Впровадження енергозберігаючих технологій зазвичай не вимагає великих капіталовкладень. 8. Іноді буває дуже важко мотивувати людей економити електроенергію.

9. Спеціалісти з енергоменеджменту детально проаналізували статистичні дані споживання енергії на підприємстві і виявили причини втрат. 10. Потрібно регулярно проводити аналіз даних споживання енергії, щоб бути впевненим в ефективності заходів зі збереження енергії.

Exercise 19. Translate the following attributive word combinations.

1. V-ing + n

Increasing number, existing equipment, compelling reason, reducing damage, decreasing wastes, metering data, tracking progress, working staff.

2. adv. + V-ing + n

Constantly increasing number, presently existing equipment, steadily decreasing wastes, partially reducing damage, precisely metering device, persistently working staff.

3. V-ed + n

Defined term, reduced damage, generated electricity, developed technologies, increased number, achieved results, identified reasons, metered energy consumption, collected data, satisfied requirements.

4. adv + V-ed + n

Clearly defined term, recently reduced damage, constantly generated electricity, recently developed technologies, quickly achieved results, fully satisfied requirements, precisely metered energy consumption.

5. n + n

Energy waste, cost reduction, data collection, energy manager, energy saving, electricity consumption, engine design.

Exercise 20. Rewrite the following sentences in the Passive Voice.

1. You must analyze meter data and quantify routine energy wastes. 2. To see how well energy-saving efforts work, energy manager has analyzed meter data. 3. Individuals and organizations consume much energy. 4. One can conserve energy in different ways. 5. Our company will reduce its dependence on the fossil fuels. 6. Manufactu-rers increased energy efficiency in order to maximize profitability.

7. Energy-saving opportunities require little or no capital investment.

8. You are wasting a lot of energy.

Exercise 21. Rewrite the following sentences using Gerund.

Model: We take every opportunity to save energy. – We take every opportunity of saving energy.

1. There are a lot of ways to reduce energy consumption in municipal and residential buildings. 2. Why do you object to consider the problems of air and water pollution? 3. We considered all the reasons for and against before we introduced a new energy-saving technology. 4. The company got much experience targeting people to save energy. 5. The analysis depends on the way you meter energy consumption and collect data. 6. He strictly objected to waste energy.

7. They made some important decisions after they had considered the problem.

Exercise 22. Match the words in column A with their opposites in column B.

A	B
reduced changeable cheap beneficial simple healthy wasteful automatic modern	constant unprofitable economical manual harmful expensive increased out-of-date complicated

Exercise 23. The following sentences have been jumbled. Arrange them correctly and translate.

1. reduces, profitability, your, energy, wasting.

2. taken, meter, be, readings, at, should, intervals, and, regular, frequent.

3. ways, are, several, there, paying, less, of, for, electricity.

4. results, organizations, have, that, adopted, management, have, energy, good.

5. recorded, be, worksheets, readings, can, meter, on, or, spreadsheet, computer.

Exercise 24. Put general and special questions to each sentence.

1. Promotional material is used to raise staff awareness. 2. The managers use promotional material to raise staff awareness. 3. All staff should be encouraged to participate in energy-saving action plans.

4. The energy manager has encouraged all staff to participate in action plans. 5. Much energy is being wasted because of lack of awareness.

6. People waste much energy because of lack of awareness.

Exercise 25. Read and learn the following words and word combinations.

Volatile – 1) летючий, швидковипаровуваний; 2) непостійний, мінливий

dispersed – розповсюджений

aging facilities – застарілі засоби виробництва

visibility – видимість

constraint – обмеження

obstacle – перешкода

performance – характеристика роботи, коефіцієнт корисної дії

sustained – тривалий, безперервний

implementation – впровадження

energy management system (EMS) – система енергоменеджменту

normalized level – стандартизований рівень

calculating-analytical method – розрахунково-аналітичний метод

boiler house – котельна

compressed air system – система стисненого повітря

furnace – піч, топка

index (pl. indices) – показник, індекс

accumulation – нагромадження, накопичення

fuel and energy resources (FER) – паливно-енергетичні ресурси

overexpenditure – перевитрата, надмірне споживання

timely repair – вчасний ремонт

retrofit – 1) модернізація; модифікація; 2) модифікувати

acumen – кмітливість, гострота розуміння

daunt – бентежити, збентежувати; залякувати

intermittent – переривчастий; переміжний

sourcing – пошук; використання в якості джуся постачання

energy saving measures (ESM) – заходи зі збереження енергії

Exercise 26. Read, translate text 3 and make the plan of key ideas.