System Assessment Standards: Defining the Market for Assessment Services

Improved system efficiency can contribute to an industrial facility’s bottom line and also improve reliability and better utilize assets. Despite these opportunities, many industrial facilities continue to have unrealized system optimization potential. A significant barrier to realizing this potential is the lack of market definition for system energy efficiency assessment services. This creates problems for service providers in establishing market value for their services and problems for consumers in determining the relative quality of assessment service offerings. Achieving certification for energy efficiency will require industrial facilities to document a specified reduction in energy intensity. Application of System Assessment Standards will offer industrial facilities seeking certification a well-defined path toward improved energy intensity. System Assessment Standards will help define the market for both users and providers of industrial system assessment services. Use of these standards will provide assurance that a particular assessment represents a recognized threshold for accuracy and completeness. The goal is a significant increase in system energy efficiency improvements in U.S. industry