LECTURE#01

Introduction to Energy Engineering & Management

Energy has been called the Ultimate Resource for two reasons: Firstly, without energy all the
other resources on the planet are unobtainable. Secondly, unlike water or carbon, energy cannot
itself be re-cycled. In the industrial countries we have come to depend heavily on large amounts
of energy to support our way of life, and we usually expect that it will always be there at
affordable prices.

However two major energy problems are looming. The first is depletion. About 90% of the
world's energy comes from the fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) which are finite. It seems likely that
oil and gas will be virtually exhausted within one human lifetime from now. Coal could last
much longer, perhaps several hundred years, but that brings us to the second major problem. As
a result of burning carbon based fossil fuels we are forcing global climatic changes at an
unprecedented rate. It is possible that we may have to leave most of the remaining fossil fuels in
the ground.

The only alternatives to fossil fuels appear to be nuclear power and the renewable energy
sources such as solar and wind power. Nuclear already supplies about 10% of world electricity
but seems to have slowed down, with increasing concern about costs and environmental impact,
in particular the question of how to deal with the growing accumulation of nuclear waste
material. Renewable look promising and some are making rapid progress. For example, wind
power is now the fastest growing energy technology in the world, with an annual growth rate of
about 30%. However they still have a long way to go to match the contribution of the fossil fuels.

With the world population still growing and demand for energy still rising we could be facing a
real energy crisis. This is where energy engineering comes in.

Energy Engineering

Some of the most interesting and productive developments in engineering have taken place at the
interfaces between conventional engineering disciplines, for example bio-engineering which
crosses the boundaries between medicine and engineering.

Another good example is Energy Engineering. This is usually taken to mean the application of a
mix of engineering disciplines, such as mechanical and electrical engineering, to solving the
problems of extracting, collecting and utilizing energy resources to satisfy human needs without
destroying the environment.

Energy Engineering is a broad field of engineering that encapsulates energy management, energy
efficiency, renewable energy, and environmental maintenance. Not only must energy engineers
be familiar with renewable energy, they must also know about oil and natural-gas energies.
Energy engineering is an interdisciplinary collaboration between all of our energy technologies.

 Fuel Chemistry (coal, petroleum, natural gas, and biomass)

 Physics (electricity and magnetism, fluid mechanics)
 Engineering Fundamentals (thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer)
 Sustainable Energy Options (solar, hydro, and wind energy systems design),
 Business (ethics, economics, and professional electives)
 Energy design project

Energy minimization is the purpose of this growing discipline. Often applied to building design,
heavy consideration is given to HVAC, lighting, refrigeration, to both reduce energy loads and
increase efficiency of current systems. Energy engineering is increasingly seen as a major step
forward in meeting carbon reduction targets. Since buildings and houses consume over 40% of
the United States energy, the services an energy engineer performs are in demand

Requirements

There are lots of needed programming skills to optimize energy efficiency and system design.
Some examples of tasks an energy engineer would accomplish are: design commercial PV with
AutoCAD, create PV layouts with PVsys, use Excel modeling with VBA capabilities (for project
finance roles), and use Python or Python+R for energy optimization problems. Energy
Engineering is about learning tools such as these and continuously learning about current energy
technologies to improve our application of energy.

Applications

There is a huge potential in all of these tools, and current trends are about energy harvesting and
programmable logic controllers to efficiently power all of our devices. Technologies such as
these will help us answer questions such as…

 What’s the minimum amount of energy required to power the internet?

 How can we enable autonomous tools to operate off of various energies to the point
where if one energy source is down, there will still be others to extract from?
 How to improve our circular economies?

The main application of energy engineering today is to improve buildings and manufacturing
processes which are the greatest users of energy. As we create new systems in our society,
energy engineering will hopefully have greater influence in creation rather than in mitigation.
Another growing area of employment for energy engineering is in the environmental aspects of
energy utilization. The collection and utilization of energy can have a huge environmental impact
and both industrialists and environmental regulators have a growing need for professionals who
understand and can deal with these problems.

An interesting new growth area for Energy and Environmental Engineering is in the emerging
and rapidly expanding renewable energy industries in World. As mentioned before, wind power
is leading the race to expand but some of the others, for example solar electricity from
photovoltaic, are not far behind. We now have engineers working in wind, wave, hydro and solar
energy. The challenges here are enormous but so are the potential rewards that can be gained by
employing sufficient skills and flexibility to cross the disciplinary boundaries of these new
energy technologies.

Energy management: A balanced combination of energy awareness, behavioral practices and

technology to systematically achieve energy efficiency for optimal operations.

Energy efficiency: Using less energy to provide the same service

Energy Management

Energy Management includes planning and operation of energy production and energy
consumption units. Objectives are resource conservation, climate protection and cost savings,
while the users have permanent access to the energy they need. It is connected closely to
environmental management, production management, logistics and other established business
functions. Some key benefits of good energy management are

• Increased operational effectiveness

• Life cycle costs reduction

• Logistical footprint reduction

• Optimizes resource use (time, manpower, money)

• High Energy security

• Risk mitigation enabled

• Reduced negative environmental impact

The energy management planning starts with a baseline assessment of energy needs: identifying
energy demanding zones, timings and patterns of demand, and what will impact energy usage
(seasonal, time of day). After identifying needs, an energy budget determining production and
distribution requirements must be created for energy usage. Once the requirements are
determined, the resources necessary to fulfill the production and distribution needs must be
identified. It is at this point the opportunities to determine the feasibility of alternative energy
sources and configurations should be analyzed. During this analysis, factors to be considered
should include: capacity, feasibility of using renewable resources, and logistics footprint. The
plan should also include integration of sensors and a routine monitoring process.

So the development of an energy management plan should include:

• Energy use profile (baseline assessment of energy needs): where, how much, timing

• Energy production and distribution (energy budget, energy usage)

• Resources needed and possible alternative energy sources and configurations

• Responsible personnel

• Monitoring plan for energy use

Some planning strategies that can be adopted are

Short-Term Medium-Term Long-Term

Use natural lighting as Establish micro grids for Plan and establish
much as possible load balance and off peak alternative, renewable
power use (thus energy resources and
Choose energy- minimizing fuel needs) waste-to-energy converters.
efficient appliances
where possible (e.g., Plan and establish Use newest techniques for
fluorescent lights) thermally insulated efficient air-conditioning
buildings only, where (i.e. heat-pumps).
Develop personnel possible, with eco-
awareness about efficient materiel (i.e., Establish a benefit system
energy saving cellulose insulation) for successful
energy/resources saving.
Plan and establish
resource-saving Consider waste-to-energy
installations conversion systems

Consider waste- to-energy

conversion systems

Another important element of the plan is to raise awareness among all concerned to help shape
their behavior and familiarize them with standard operating procedures to reduce energy
demand. Training for personnel directly involved with operation, maintenance and monitoring of
equipment must be established and must include safety procedures and protocols.

The plan should be implemented and monitored to determine any areas of concern, opportunities
for improvement, or any changes. Documentation must be maintained; this is especially
important because of changeovers in staff.

Responsibility for energy use management and energy best management practices may evolve as
the plan matures from initial to sustained operations.

Energy
efficiency

Energy
conser-
vation

Energy
awareness

Examples of Energy Reduction Practices include

• Using energy efficient equipment

 LED lightening
 Micro-grids for integrated power sources

• Energy conservation

 Seal leaks
 Use natural lighting
 Shading
 Directional siting of structures
 • Behavioral change

 Turning off lights, computers

 Economic driving, e.g. no fast starts or sudden stops

Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is seen two ways. The first view is that more work is done from the same
amount of energy used. The other perception is that the same amount of work is accomplished
with less energy used in the system. Some ways to get more work out of less energy is to
"Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle" the materials used in daily life. The advancement of technology
has led to other uses of waste such as waste-to-energy facilities which convert solid wastes
through the process of gasification or pyrolysis to liquid fuels to be burned. The Environmental
Protection Agency stated that the advanced countries produced on average 250 million tons of
municipal waste in 2010. Of that 250 million tons roughly 54% gets thrown in land fills, 33% is
recycled, and 13% goes to energy recovery plants. In European countries who pay more for fuel,
have more fully developed waste-to energy facilities.[8] In 2010 Denmark sent 7% of waste to
landfills, 69% was recycled, and 24% was sent to waste-to-energy facilities. There are several
other developed Western European countries that also have taken energy engineering into
consideration.[7] Germany's "Energiewende", a policy which set the goal by 2050 to meet 80% of
electrical needs from renewable energy sources.

• Facility planning and building zoning

• Natural shading, window coatings

• Lighting (internal, external, natural lightning)

• LED or occupancy sensors

• Heat transfer technologies, heat pumps, hot water

• Air tightness, insulation, ventilation

• Variable speed electric motor drives

• Solar for thermal and electrical use, insulated hot water systems, water-efficient systems

When using LED lighting, it is often recommended to not use occupancy sensors. Occupancy
sensors may draw more power than the LED lights.

Energy efficient light bulbs include halogen incandescent, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs),
and light emitting diodes (LEDs). Such lights typically use about 25%-80% less energy than
traditional bulbs and last 3-25 times longer. LED lighting is preferred over the other types due to
lower energy requirements, smaller size, greater longevity, and fewer disposal concerns.
Heat transfer technologies include using excess heating or cooling for space climate control,
water, etc.