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WSU Energy Program
Resource Efficiency Management
 

Energy Accounting

Program Update: Since 1997, the Washington State University Extension Energy Program has provided support for the REM program through funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP). While funding for the REM Program has been discontinued as of December 31, 2006, the resources in this website still offer value to REMs and those interested in contracting a REM for their facility. Additional energy management resources and support are available by visiting the FEMP website. Employees of federal facilities, or those contracted with them (including REMs) may access technical assistance through the EERE Information Center by calling 877-337-3463 or visiting their website.

While the information posted on this website will be accessible indefinitely, the site itself will not be maintained after December 31, 2006.

The basic principle of resource accounting is that you cannot control something that you can’t measure. Resource accounting is used to determine where resources are being used, how much is used, and how much it costs. This concept can be as simple as a monthly paper ledger of monthly energy usage figures, or as sophisticated as an advanced software program with a variety of pre-designed graphs and reports. There are many well-supported software packages on the market for this purpose. You can also pay a service to do all your resource accounting work for you.

Resource accounting can also be a valuable tool for measuring progress toward resource reduction goals. A good accounting system will track monthly consumption and cost of resources for each building or facility in your organization. Resource accounting helps you develop consumption profiles for buildings, or make comparisons between buildings from one year to the next. These facility comparisons can identify many problems early, before they cost too much.

Accrued savings for energy projects or programs are documented through the resource accounting system. Resource accounting enables easy error checking, determination of baseline consumption, and ability to provide easy-to-read consumption and costs graphs to management and various facility groups. This is an excellent tool for fostering support for any strong energy program.

Before PurchasingSoftware, Ask These Questions:*

  • Will both energy and non-energy utilities be tracked?

  • Should billing data be imported electronically?

  • What type of energy conversions and statistics should be reported?

  • Is it necessary that the program verifies utility bill calculations or calculates costs under different rate schedules?

  • Will the program be used to calculate savings or avoided costs?

  • If so, how important are adjustments based on weather, operation or production changes, and changes in utility rates?

  • What types of reports and graphs will be produced?

  • Will custom reports or graphs need to be produced?

  • Will it be necessary to export data to other accounting systems or software?

  • What level of engineering and technical training will software users have?

*The questions above are taken from Kenneth Spain's article "New Software for New Challenges" in Energy User News, July, 1998.