Energy audit for factories: the report is only as good as the data.

Types of energy audit

• Walk-through (preliminary) audit: a short visit, the past year’s bills and a look at the main loads. It finds the obvious savings and decides where a closer look is worth it.
• Detailed audit: measurements on the major loads, energy balance by section, and a list of savings with costs and payback.
• Investment grade energy audit (IGEA): a detailed audit firm enough for a lender to finance the project, with a measured baseline and expected savings. Schemes such as ADEETIE ask for one.

Who must do a BEE mandatory energy audit

Under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001, the government notifies large energy-intensive units as designated consumers, in sectors such as thermal power, cement, iron and steel, aluminium, fertiliser, textile, pulp and paper, chlor-alkali, refineries and electricity distribution, above a sector-wise consumption threshold. A designated consumer must:

• appoint or designate an energy manager;
• have a mandatory energy audit done by an accredited energy auditor: the first within 18 months of being notified, then every three years under BEE’s energy audit regulations;
• report its energy consumption to BEE and the state designated agency every year.

Most MSMEs are not designated consumers and have no legal duty to audit. For them an audit is a business decision, and often the first step to a cheaper loan or a lower bill.

Accredited or certified energy auditor?

A certified energy auditor has passed BEE’s national certification exam and can carry out voluntary audits. A mandatory audit for a designated consumer has to be done by an accredited energy auditor, a firm accredited by BEE. Check the auditor’s status on BEE’s lists before you sign.

What the auditor will ask for

• Twelve months of electricity bills: units, Maximum Demand, power factor, TOD split and penalties.
• The load profile at the incomer across normal days, weekends and shift changes.
• Energy by panel or section, so the energy balance adds up to the main meter.
• Production figures for the same period, to work out specific energy consumption.
• Running hours of the major machines and what runs when nothing is being made.
• Voltage, current unbalance, power factor and harmonics on the main loads.

Portable loggers record a few days. If those days were quiet, or a capacitor bank happened to be working, the report reflects that week rather than the year. Continuous records from fixed meters show the whole picture.

After the audit

An audit report saves nothing on its own. The savings come from the measures being carried out and then holding. Track the same figures afterwards: energy per panel, SEC, power factor and Maximum Demand, so you can see which recommendations paid back and which quietly slipped.

How KONDUKTOR® EMS helps

• Continuous records from every panel meter: energy, demand, power factor, voltage and current.
• Load profiles and heatmaps by hour and day, Maximum Demand history and TOD split.
• Daily production entry with plant-wide SEC.
• Excel and CSV export for the auditor, kept inside your plant.
• The same view after the audit, to check that each saving holds.

Are you the auditor? See how fixed monitoring fits your audit, and what it does not replace.

This page describes the BEE energy audit rules in general terms. Notified sectors, thresholds and intervals are set by government notification and can change; check BEE’s current notifications for your unit.