From the Inside Flap
Uncertainty over energy prices, equipment performance, weather, and other factors make it exceedingly difficult for many commercial, institutional, industrial, and government organizations to assess the costs and benefits of energy-efficiency investments--creating severe energy budgeting and planning problems, which become even more difficult in areas with competitive energy markets. In Energy Budgets at Risk (EBaR)(R), respected energy economist Dr. Jerry Jackson explains why high energy prices and market volatility can be expected to continue, and shows how to reduce energy costs and increase cash flows using risk management concepts developed in the financial industry.
The Energy Budgets at Risk (EBaR)(R) system developed by the author and described in this book is a new quantitative approach to evaluating energy-efficiency investments using modern risk management tools. Commercial, institutional, industrial, and government organizations can now apply investment analysis to energy-related decisions in a manner that is consistent with their financial investment analysis. EBaR can also incorporate energy purchase decisions for organizations in competitive energy markets, providing an integrated investment-purchase analysis. In short, EBaR applies quantitative risk management analysis vetted in the financial community in a process customized to meet the risk tolerance of individual organizations. It offers a road map that energy managers, corporate executives, and government officials can use to understand and implement "best practice" facility energy risk management strategies.
Because EBaR is a scalable application, it can be used in both large and small organizations of any type--whether commercial, institutional, industrial, or government--and its strategies can save thirty percent or more of current energy bills, even after paying for energy-efficiency investments.
Written for a nontechnical audience, this book requires no special background in mathematics or statistics. All concepts and applications are illustrated with a case study application to an Austin, Texas office building, and readers can apply similar risk management analysis by substituting data for their facilities. Appendix tables provide readers with an easy way to assess potential energy and financial benefits of an EBaR analysis.
The primary opportunity to meet environmental goals is through energy-efficiency investments that reduce energy use, making EBaR analysis essential to every organization's carbon-reducing efforts. Energy Budgets at Risk (EBar)(R) provides everyone from facility energy managers and financial managers to government policy-makers and electric utilities program planners with the background information required to understand energy cost, price, efficiency, and related issues important in developing a balanced approach to facility energy risk management.
Jerry Jackson is an energy economist and Texas A&M professor with thirty years' experience in developing and applying practical solutions to difficult energy industry problems. As owner and President of the consulting firm, Jackson Associates, he has worked with more than one hundred clients, including more than twenty Fortune 500 companies, start-up companies, electric and gas utilities, state agencies, research labs, and the U.S. Department of Energy. Jackson has served as an expert witness at government hearings. He recently presented a keynote address at an international sustainability conference in New Zealand, and he has also served as a U.S. representative to a United Nations conference on energy modeling. Jackson has a PhD in economics from the University of Florida with a specialty in econometrics.
