Energy Efficiency Opportunities program

Yesterday I met with staff from the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism who look after the Energy Efficiency Opportunities program. This program doesn't get a lot of public attention, although it has been up and running for some time. The program requires large energy-using businesses to identify, evaluate and report on energy use. The department provides templates for business to use to report and places an emphasis on using this to report energy saving initiatives. ICT is key to this program, with the Internet being used for the reporting. However, there would appear to be more scope for computers and telecommunications to be used to streamline the collection of the data and in reduction measures.

There are some problems with this scheme, due to the government's climate change initiatives being split between three departments: Energy, Environment and the Department of Climate Change. The reporting requirements for EEO are different from those for the proposed carbon reduction scheme. Also EEO gets little attention for senior ministers and limited funding, even though it is a program which covers the bulk of Australia's carbon emitting companies.

The information provided by EEO is not particularly well organised, with the list of company information being split across web pages, based on the first letter of the company name.

Some information on the program:

1. Industry Guidelines
2. Assessment Handbook
3. Assessment and Reporting Schedule Template
4. Case Studies
5. EEO Workshops 2006-2009
6. Energy Savings Measurement Guide
7. Frequently Asked Questions
   
8. Services directory
9. Verification fact sheet

2009 Energy Efficiency Opportunities Workshops

• Opening presentation – Update on EEO and Energy Policy
• National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting
• Investor Perspective – Phil Preston
• Investor Perspective – Andrew Barr[PDF,89KB]
• EEO Public and Government Reporting [PDF,130kb]
• EEO Verification [PDF,122KB]
• Trends from First Assessments [PDF,130KB]
  
• Data Analysis [PDF,204KB]
• Energy Mass Balances [PDF,133KB]
• Representative Assessments [PDF,687KB]
• Industry Assistance Programs [PDF,78KB]

Industry presentations

• National Australia Bank [PDF,66 KB]
• Energy Manager, Sydney Water [PDF,163KB]
• Santos Limited [PDF,92KB]
• Toyota Australia [PDF,303KB]
• Incitec Pivot Ltd [PDF, 97KB]
• Linfox [PDF,306KB]
• Shell Geelong Refinery [PDF,94KB]
• Thiess's Australian Mining business unit [PDF,841KB]
• Wesfarmers Limited [PDF,212KB]
• OneSteel [PDF,515KB]