Ohoh, that is a low pressure in our gas reserves. Like I wrote in an earlier blog, the war in Ukraine caused sanctions and the sanctions are hurting the countries that impose them against the aggressor. Moscow wants Rubles for energy and that makes limitations on their energy supply still more probable. It is now really time to intervene, not only with finding alternative supplies: everybody is looking for that and prices are going to the stars. Also transport must be re-organised with those new supplies to our markets (“sorry, transport not included in the price”).
So, what else? Did you read or hear much news about, for example, Energy Efficiency as an alternative solution to shopping everywhere? Not me. I wrote already about this alternative, called by The Economist the “Invisible Fuel”. Now I repeat it because the shortages become more severe and Energy Conservation Opportunities (ECOs) get higher Returns on Investment. Another reason why efficiency becomes interesting is because the crisis seems to become long enough to justify already now many of the better ECOs with shorter Payback Time. Depending on future prices, also ECOs with longer payback will be interesting.
In addition to this increased driver for Energy Efficiency, I suggest what I wrote last year about a solution that becomes more interesting and can be organised by yourself, medium to large energy consumer but also as a policy for Governments. I see that capacity building in Energy Management is always done on a high level, addressing Certified Energy Managers. I know such a specialist, an engineer that eventually limited himself to check and optimise energy bills and suppliers for a big group of hospitals in the UK. There was much money in that limited activity and the interest in ECOs that save concrete energy decreased, but it is what we need now. Nothing wrong with the money saving he did, but (and here it comes) if the already existing technical staff would understood energy, he would be able to set up an Energy Efficiency Team and do much more, leveraging his experience.
So here is the proposal if you have a monthly bill over 30 k$: provide medium level Energy Management Training to the technical staff that is ALREADY in your organisation, bring them together into a team with an Energy Manager and you will be soon on your way to a more resilient AND sustainable future. That is what you can call leverage of your technical employees, which will bring you through this energy crisis and whatever comes after.
I am looking forward to see your opinion!