Development and Use of Tools for Assessing the Potential of Increasing Energy Efficiency at Enterprises

The processes of justifying and implementing measures to improve the energy efficiency of enterprises should be based on a preliminary assessment of the potential for such improvement. The purpose of this study is to develop and use tools for assessing the potential for improving energy efficiency at enterprises. It has been established that the potential for improving the energy efficiency of an enterprise should be identified with its ability, under certain parameters of the internal and external environment, to implement a certain number of sufficiently effective measures that will ensure such an increase. It is found that the mechanism of formation of this potential has a hierarchical structure, and the factors influencing the process of such formation can be divided into internal and external. A method and indicators for assessing the generalized value of the potential for improving the energy efficiency of enterprises, as well as the values of its investment and financial components, have been developed. Mechanisms for using the proposed tools, in particular with the involvement of firms providing energy consulting services, have been formed. An empirical analysis was conducted on a sample of enterprises that consume natural gas. This analysis, in particular, showed that more than half of the enterprises under study are those with a high investment component of the potential for improving energy efficiency in natural gas. However, the financial component of this potential is much smaller. At the same time, with an increase in the share of natural gas purchase costs in the total amount of material costs incurred by enterprises, the average level of the investment component of their energy efficiency improvement potential increases. At the same time, the highest level of energy efficiency improvement potential was observed in enterprises with an average level of profitability of their total assets. It was also found that in the case of an increase in the expected profitability of investments in energy-saving measures, the rate of increase in the potential for energy efficiency improvement is higher than the rate of increase in the profitability of these measures.