April 16, 2007—The US Department of Energy (DOE) and the US Department of Commerce’s National Institute for Science and Technology (NIST) recently announced the creation of a partnership to help small and mid-sized manufacturers reduce energy consumption.
DOE’s university-based Industrial Assessment Centers (IAC) and NIST’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) are working together to improve the energy efficiency, environmental performance, and global competitiveness of these plants.
Approximately 200,000 small and mid-sized plants in the US pay a total of $50 billion per year in energy costs, says DOE. This initiative has the potential to help these manufacturers reduce energy costs in some cases by up to 30 percent per year. Many IACs have already been working with local MEPs to identify plants for energy assessments and share energy savings information. The new partnership will expand this successful interaction.
Through the MEP network, the IACs will deliver energy efficiency best practices, analysis tools, energy assessments, technical information, and training. The collaboration is expected to deliver a wide range of energy efficiency information to impact more than 1,800 plants in the first year. According to DOE, the recommendations from previous IAC energy assessments resulted, on average, in annual cost savings of $55,000 for the manufacturer.
