Energy Management
| The degreee project at Gobabeb
is about sustainable supply energy to a remote location. The four elements
of sustainable energy are illustrated here. These are application of energy
efficient technology (including renewable energy), energy management,
energy awareness and revenue collection (that is payment according to
metered consumption). Energy management is to manage energy consumption more or less in the same way as with money. That is drawing up budgets or plans, book keeping, accounts and audits. We can only manage our money and be aware of our financial situation if we know how much money we have, how much we are spending and what for. It is in the same with energy.  |
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Gobabeb measures the usage of electricity, gas, and water from each building on its premises. It also tracks the residency patterns for the station in terms of the number of staff, visitors, workshops, students groups present per month. This information is collected monthly and entered into a computer and analyzed for inconsistencies by the energy manager. Based on this the energy manger will suggest energy efficiency measures and awareness activities  Metered consumption for electricity, gas and water is collected on a monthly basis and entered into the computer for energy management. |
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The Energy Manager works under
the management of Gobabeb Energy Services ( the part of Gobabeb management
that takes care of energy ) and has two tasks: Regarding energy management, the Energy Manager acts on the basis of monthly consumption data collected from users as well as operational data (fuel consumption, collected solar energy etc.) from the hybrid system. He is under the management of Gobabeb Energy Services. |
The Energy Manager calculated monthly consumption per building, compares it to expected or budgeted values and takes needed actions. |
During the analysis the Energy Manager will ask questions and formulate conclusions and actions to be taken. Some of these may be simple messages to users on how they are wasting energy, others may be suggestions for new campaigns or investments which need to be presented and decided by the management, the Gobabeb Energy Services. |
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What is Energy Management DEFINITION: The commitments
of managerial resources to optimize the usage of energy through the organization
and by that increase the cost efficiency and reduce the environmental
impact.
Energy Management can also be described as a part of the broader resource or environmental management which includes management of waste, recycling aspects and other environmental issues. In a large organization (for example a factory or a municipality) energy management may be a full time task for a dedicated person. His or her task will then only be to look into efficient use of energy and perhaps other resources, not to take care of operation and maintenance. In a smaller organization (like Gobabeb) the Energy Manager will typically also take care of operation and maintenance. Energy management can also be seen as a money machine which produced money for the organizations and the individuals in the organization This is the good circle of energy management. Energy management identifies profitable energy efficiency measures and the result is therefore, that in the end money is saved and the environment is improved. The energy audit is one time (or it could be done yearly), the idea is to get started and to jump into the good circle of energy management. The energy audit is based on available information about consumption, user behavior, and production data etc., supplemented by data collected for this purpose. The energy audits identifies obvious energy efficiency measures and saving possibilities, which subsequently can be implemented and be the basis for the first successful circulation in the diagram.
The energy management circle is a monthly cycle based on monthly readings from meters and data from the energy supply and distributions system. The energy audit is a one time (or perhaps yearly) thing, a starting point to get into the good circle. |
There
is no energy management if no data is available. Therefore it will sometimes
be necessary (before the audit), to install meters. For example water
meters or electricity meters on individual buildings or units of consumption.
As a first approach, use of LPG can be estimated by a scale or the time
between replacements, and diesel use can be seen from invoices.
Through metering, the consumption becomes visible and that is a precondition for management. Another precondition for energy management is that users of energy, pay for the energy according to their consumption, one way or the other. It is part of human nature that if something is for free we tend to manage it very badly. With the information - this much you consumed, this much you have to
pay, we start to manage and control our consumption. This is done for
different reasons, some people because they find it difficult to pay,
others because they wish to protect the environment, or for other reasons. Electric meter for the total consumption.
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Energy Management at Gobabeb - HOW?
It is not a full time job to be the energy
manager at Gobabeb, he or she also take care of other things. The dedicated
energy management tasks includes in brief: • Taking monthly readings from meters all over - a two hour task. • Entering them into the energy management tool (a spreadsheet in a PC) - a two hour task. • Filling in the logbook with events • Analyzing the data (tool plus events) - another two hour task. • Monthly report to Gobabeb Energy Services - another two hour task. • Presentation of report to the management in a monthly meeting where he/she will give recommendations. The same person will also take care of supply, maintenance, complaints
from users, ordering diesel, settings and adjustments etc. This is a
much more time consuming task, but it is not energy management. 
Readings for energy management |
Meters for electricity at the workers quarters(Tsabibis). One meter for each housing unit or family. |
Energy Management at Gobabeb focuses in the first place on electricity. The energy management takes monthly readings of He enters these data into a tool (in Excel) that calculates: The consumption of electricity in kWh/day for 
Entering data into the spreadsheet for energy management |
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The Energy Management Tool (a spreadsheet)
One result is the monthly consumption per meter in kWh/day. For the non personal consumption this gives an overview of consumption, for example notice the high consumption of the borehole pump in February - why is that? |
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Each month the average daily consumption for personal and non-personal consumption is calculated, so is losses. The Energy Manager will look for the fluctuations and find an explanation. |
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The output from the Energy Management tool includes a number of graphs as well. These are displayed for staff and visitors and updated monthly as a part of the energy awareness campaign. |
• All functions taking place at the center
• Commissioning, replacing and resetting of meters.
• Scheduled and unscheduled maintenance
• Purchase of diesel fuel, etc.
• Or any unusual observations that have to do with energy which could
effect the results from the tool.
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Before and after Hybrid system The hybrid system at Gobabeb, which
started operation during September 2004, was a major change in the energy
system at Gobabeb. |
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Introduction of the hybrid system therefore changed the situation completely and made energy management essential. With the diesel, energy management did not make much sense.
The following graphs show how dramatically the consumption pattern was changed.
