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能源管理从基本做起 Energy Management — start simple.

做工业节能减排并非是件容易的事，尤其是你不了解该如何选择合适的项目和技术。所以，我们建议工厂从最基本的开始，一步一步做起。首先，工厂需要了解那一种能源是最大支出，然后回答下面的三个问题：

1. 工厂最大的能源支出是什么？

2.哪些机械消耗最多的能源，它们是如何运作的？

3.账单上的所有条目是什么？

你一般都可以从财务部了解到各种支出，拿到相关的账单。这些信息可以帮助你开始分析和找到潜在的节能机会。

和生产经理交流，然后再去生产车间转转就不难找到消耗能源最大的机械。看看每一台机械上的铭牌，就知道那一台的功率最大。

现在你知道了工厂最大的能源成本支出，还有消耗成本最大的机械。你现在就应该找到相关的账单，并且逐一分析上面的支出。电是大部分工厂最大的能源支出，这也是为什么芝麻开门从电费单开始。很多工厂都反应，电费上有很多不同的条目，很难理解，通过分析电费单上的数据来找到潜在的省钱机会需要大量时间和精力。我们开发EEx芝麻开门就是用来帮助工厂更高效的做电费单的管理和分析，找到潜在的浪费和问题。另外，芝麻开门还会自动分析工厂的数据，提出可以帮助工厂节约的改进建议，还有每月的电费单错误报告。

在引进任何技术和节能工程之前，对于工厂来说，最重要的就是去真正了解工厂的用电及其他能源的消耗情况，看看是不是有不需要采取任何大改变或者花大钱就能省钱的机会。

Energy Management — start simple.

Doing an energy efficiency project at a factory can be an overwhelming task, especially when you are trying to figure out what technology or program is a right fit. This is why we suggest you start simple, and expand your initiative one step at a time. Start by looking at your most expensive energy type, and find the answers to three questions about how the factory uses and pays for it. 

Which energy cost is the biggest?

What are the biggest energy using machines and when do they operate? 

What are all the charges on your bill for?

Most people go about answering these questions by asking the accounting/finance department for the breakdown of overhead & utility costs. This can help you identify which energy type you should look at first.

A quick conversation with the production manager & a walk through the factory can help you find the machines that use the most energy. Look at the nameplate on the back of the machine and see which have the biggest number for KW.

Now that you know which energy type is important, and which machines use it, you should look at the detailed bill to understand how you are charged for it. Electricity is a vital energy type for most factories, and that’s why we started with electricity at EEx. Many people have told us that it’s hard to understand what all the charges on their bill really mean — and verifying it’s correct and identifying opportunities to save takes a lot of time and analysis. We built EEx Charge to help facility managers do this more efficiently, and call out issues if they might be overpaying for electricity. Charge provides recommendations for ways to reduce cost & has a billing error report that shows you the possible mistakes on your bill.

Before you spend a lot of time and money on finding the right technology solutions to drive efficiency at your factory, make sure you understand how you pay for electricity and if there is anything you can do to save cost without making any operational or equipment changes. 

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Start simple.

When I was in sourcing (helping factories around the world make products for US retailers), I often found opportunities for efficiency at factories hidden in areas of their business no one could explain easily. Upon further examination of these areas — many of which were directly tied to cost, I’d always find something interesting. This is how I found the opportunity for factories to save money by understanding how they use and pay for electricity. 

I was analyzing the cost structure for a bunch of factories in Southern China, and when I asked them to explain their electricity bill, confusion ensued. I’d often hear factory managers yell things to their accountant like “给我真的电费单, 不是假的” (give me the real bills, not the fake ones”) and people would often hand me a fapiao (tax receipt) rather than their itemized bill. Almost no one could explain what the “基本电费” (basic charge) was for, and always told me that they know the rate is cheaper at night, but they can’t work at night for one reason or another. As I slowly learned how industrial factories in China are charged for electricity, I found myself explaining it to others and getting emails from other factories asking me if I could help them.

Not only are things like utility bills confusing, but factories are busy places (well, good ones are), and it’s hard to find the time and people with the expertise to figure out these necessary elements of their business. Over and over again, I listened to factory owners and managers tell me they know they have operational challenges or are overpaying for utilities, but didn’t have the time or know how to go about finding the right solution.

Looking at the costs of dozens of factories, I continually found savings from analyzing a few things on their bill. When I looked at the energy efficiency market and realized none of the consultants and technology companies had a solution that helped factories understand how they pay for electricity. This was a bit shocking to me, given that their services all revolve around selling their customers on “ROI”, and I’m not sure how a customer really understands what their ROI will be if they don’t even understand their costs. 

Maybe, just maybe, this is why everyone finds it so hard to sell these consulting services to Chinese factories. I often hear the excuse that “factories don’t want to pay for knowledge” or that “they only care about growth”, but I don’t think that’s the real problem. Maybe they don’t really understand the cost you are promising your service or technology will lower. They understand and get nervous when it goes up, and are happy when it goes down, but it’s hard for them to assess solutions when they don’t really know what affects the cost.

So, how do you help them understand how they use and pay for electricity? The other issue is that this problem (helping them understand how they use and pay for electricity) does’ t sound very profitable to solve — sounds more like the customer service job of the utility company, and who wants to try and make a business out of that? Well, OPower has done a pretty good job of doing that in the West, but Chinese utilities are run differently, so there needs to be a different model.

Our solution is a web app called EEx Charge. The facility manager spends two minutes entering in a few pieces of data from their electricity bill, and Charge tells them what’s going on. It’s a great first step for any factory that either doesn’t have the in-house energy expertise or if their team is to busy to run all the analysis each month manually.

Any solution for this user has to be simple. Most people in this industry are trying to build a robust solution that can solve so many different problems factories have, but we’ve seen that a simple, target approach is much more effective at engaging users and creating lasting change in this market.

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View Recommendation (Power Story) details 查看具体改善行动内容

1. On the Energy Summary page, you will see different “Power Story” recommendations that alert you to possible opportunities to reduce cost. These also show you how much money you can save if you have this problem and fix it.

2. If you need more details on the Power Story, there is a WHY link on the top right hand corner of every Power Story that will open a dialog box with more information. 

1. 在能源汇总的主页，您通常会同时看到多个可能存在的节省机会。您还会看到每个建议都会告诉您，如果解决这个问题，您可以大约节省多少钱。

2. 如果您想要更深入了解这个问题，可以点击右上角“为什么”。自动弹出的对话框是关于这个问题的具体解释。

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Print out the Recommendations 打印改善建议

1. On the Energy Summary page, if you want to print out the Recommendation, click on the PRINT link on the top right hand corner of the Power Story. This will open a print dialog box.

2. When you are done, click the blue CLOSE button at the bottom of the modal, and it will take you back to the Energy Summary page.

1. 在能源汇总的主页，您会看到不同的改善行动和潜在的节省空间。

2.如果您要打印改善行动，可以点击右上角“打印”，就会弹出打印设置窗口。

3.最后，您只要点击在最左下角“关闭”，就可以回到能源汇总主页。

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View Bill Data for a specific bill. 查看过往电费单数据

1. Click on the BILLS page on the top menu bar, which will take you to the Bill Management page.

2. The column labeled “Billing Date” has a blue link with the date of the bill. Click on the blue date link to open the bill data for that bill..

3. To view a different bill, click on the BILLS tab in the menu bar at the top to go back to the Bill Management page to select another bill.

1.点击菜单栏中的“电费单”，您会看到电费单管理页面。

2.点击蓝色的“计费日期”这一栏，您就会看到当月的电费单数据信息。

3. 想要查看不同时期的电费单，只需要点击菜单栏的“电费单”，回到电费单管理页面。

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View Past Recommendations 浏览“改善行动

1. Click on the BILLS page on the top menu bar, which will take you to the Bill Management page.

2. Click the blue link “View Recs” and this will take you to the Energy Summary page for the bill on that row.

3. The dialog box with the date on the top right of the Energy Summary page will indicate which bill date is being viewed. You can easily switch dates by choosing another date in the date drop down selector and clicking the blue “View Recommendations” button.

1.点击菜单栏中的“电费单”，您会看到电费单管理页面。

2.“改进建议”一览下面，点击“查看报告”。

3.“查看报告”将会带您到改善行动的主页。

4.在右上角您会看到日期，您可以选择不同的月份，浏览对应的改善行动。

[eexcharge-blog]

Add a New Electricity Bill 添加新电费单

1. After you have signed in to your account, the first page you will see is the Energy Summary page.

2. Click on the BILLS page on the top menu bar, which will take you to the Bill Management page.

3. Click on the blue ADD BILL button.

4. Follow the instructions to enter the data from your bill into Charge. Note that below the data fields there is a picture of a bill from your region, with color coded data elements showing you where you can find each piece of data on your bill.

1. 进入http://app.eex.io，输入用户名（你的邮箱）和密码。

2. 在菜单栏中点击“电费单”，你会看到电费单管理的页面。

3. 点击蓝色“添加电费单”。

4. 根据指示输入电费单上的数据。在每一栏中会有一张您地区对应的电费单样本，样本上用不同颜色标出了相应需要填入的数据。您可以根据提示在您自己的电费单上找到相应数据。

[tarynsullivaneex]

Proud to say that EEx is a tiny part of this! We are software made in the US, selling to Chinese factories. (Originally shared by Marc Ross on LinkedIn)