Energy monitoring and targeting

A management technique, providing (typically) a weekly or monthly assessment of actual energy consumptions relative to expected or 'target' values. Expected consumptions can be computed by various methods; a popular one is to use a straight-line relationship between consumption and an appropriate driving factor such as production throughput, or the weather expressed as degree days, etc. One important purpose of this procedure is to provide alerts when hidden, unexpected excess consumption occurs because of minor technical faults, lax operator discipline, maintenance faults and the like.

Research among successful users indicates that they also find the technique useful for tracking the savings they have made through energy-saving improvements to buildings and processes. Vilnis 19:08, 16 April 2006 (UTC)