Four new standards that establish requirements and best practices for conducting energy assessments in manufacturing plants and other types of industrial facilities have been approved as national standards and published through ASME.

The standards - covering process heating systems, pumping systems, steam systems and compressed air systems - provide a basis for operators of industrial facilities to measure energy efficiencies, improve environmental performance, optimize fuel utilization and perform other important energy assessments. The standards present the requirements for organizing and conducting assessments, collecting and analyzing data, and reporting and documenting findings.

Three have been approved as national standards by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and are now available for purchase:
  • Energy Assessment for Process Heating Systems (ASME EA-1-2009).
  • Energy Assessment for Pumping Systems (ASME EA-2-2009).
  • Energy Assessment for Steam Systems (ASME EA-3-2009)
The fourth document, Assessment for Compressed Air Systems (ASME EA-4-2010), will be available in April 2010. In addition, accompanying guidance documents containing technical information on applying the four standards will be issued by mid-2010.

The new standards are an outgrowth of ASME's collaboration with DOE's Industrial Technologies Program (DOE/ITP) and emerged from work on Superior Energy Performance, an initiative spearheaded by the U.S. Council for Energy-Efficient Manufacturing and involving government and industry groups.

The 20-page standard on process heating systems is $35. It defines the methodology for conducting and reporting the results of "a process heating energy assessment that considers the entire system, from energy inputs to the work performed as the result of these inputs."

The standards can be purchased at http://catalog.asme.org or by contacting (800) 843-2763.

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