Apr 2 2008
Investing in energy efficiency can increase U.S. businesses' cash flows by $66 billion annually and reduce carbon footprints by 30 percent, according to the new book "Energy Budgets at Risk (EBaR) (R): A Risk Management Approach to Energy Purchase and Efficiency Choices," published by John Wiley and Sons.
"Most profitable efficiency investments have been ignored by businesses because energy managers couldn't make a convincing financial case in light of uncertainty over energy prices, weather, equipment performance and other factors," says author Jerry Jackson, Ph.D., a Texas A&M University professor, energy economist and president of the consulting firm Jackson Associates. EBaR solves that problem. "EBaR, an extension of the widely-used financial industry risk management tool Value at Risk (VaR), puts energy-efficiency investment decisions on the same footing as other corporate financial investments. EBaR changes the evaluation process for energy efficiency investments from the traditional question 'how soon does it pay for itself' to 'how much will it increase my cash flow' with a focus on the risks and rewards of each individual investment option."
With EBaR, energy managers will now have a new quantitative risk management process to determine how their energy efficiency investments will cut energy costs, reduce energy budget volatility and at the same time increase cash flows by at least 30 percent of their former energy budgets.
EBaR also helps achieve corporate sustainability goals by comparing costs and benefits of reducing onsite carbon emissions through facility energy- efficiency investments. Potential carbon reductions are so large in some facilities that companies can meet their carbon reduction goals and sell carbon credits, benefiting both from reduced energy costs and sales of surplus carbon credits.
The book includes a 50-page appendix of potential energy-efficiency savings at readers' facilities based on the widely used MAISY utility customer databases.
Additional information is available at http://energybudgetsatrisk.com .