Below is the text version for the Superior Energy Performance® (SEP™) video from the Alliance To Save Energy.
NARRATOR: Energy Efficiency, Competitiveness, Transparency. These are the tenets of the Superior Energy Performance program or SEP. SEP is a market-based program that helps manufacturers to improve their plants' energy performance, which in turn helps to make them more competitive.
FRED FENDT, CHAIRMAN, U.S. COUNCIL FOR ENERGY-EFFICIENT MANUFACTURING: It was created by people who have a lot of experience in manufacturing energy efficiency.
NARRATOR: A great example the SEP program's impact is the Volvo Dublin, Virginia, plant. That plant cut its energy intensity by over 25 percent while maintaining its daily truck production levels. The Volvo facility is one of 34 plants that are currently participating in the SEP program, and its success is paving the way for other Volvo plants to follow.
LARS BLOMBERG, VOLVO TRUCKS NEW RIVER VALLEY PLANT, VP & GM: We are very proud of being in the first one in the U.S.
NARRATOR: The Virginia Plan is Volvo's largest truck manufacturing facility in the world, and it's now SEP certified. This means that the plant conforms to the International Energy Management standard, ISO 50001, and that the plant savings have been validated using the SEP Measurement & Verification Protocol.
MICHAEL KIJAK, VOLVO NEW RIVER PLANT, FACILITIES & ENERGY MANAGER: We actually exceeded our expectations through employee involvement. We formed energy teams here at the plant and those energy teams produced 150 suggestions from 25 teams. And they could be as simple as turning off the lights in the vending machine to a major paint booth modification to save energy.
NARRATOR: The secrets to Volvo's success: They redesigned the air supply house for paint booths eliminating 500 horsepower worth of fan motors, and they reprogrammed the controls to shut down the ovens sooner. These improvements in process related energy applications built upon early energy-savings successes like infrared heating in the warehouse and a building control system for the fans.
PAUL SCHEIHING, U.S. DOE, ADVANCED MANUFACTURING OFFICE, TECHNOLOGY MANAGER: It's really a good example of a company that put the priority to energy efficiency as well as a very dedicated team.
NARRATOR: The Department of Energy has recognized Volvo's creativity and success as well as the Nissan Plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, which also has achieved SEP certification. These are two of seven shining star plants that make up the Southeast SEP demonstration program.
MANDY MAHONEY, SOUTHEAST ENERGY EFFICIENCY ALLIANCE, VP: The Superior Energy Performance program is critical for the Southeast to enable manufacturers and other people in the industrial sector to learn how to drive energy efficiency.
NARRATOR: In Blythewood, South Carolina, the Spirax Sarco plant is working hard toward SEP certification. Spirax is a provider of industrial steam equipment, and it is a company leading by example.
STEVE GOW, SPIRAX SARCO, DIRECTOR OF MARKETING: We can demonstrate that we're out there trying to improve upon ourselves, and we can translate that knowledge over to our customer base.
NARRATOR: The Spirax energy team's work is already leading to benefits and savings that will be verified, quantified, and tracked through the program. Spirax Sarco U.S. President Pat Tillisch is sold.
PAT TILLISCH, SIRAX SPARCO, U.S. PRESIDENT & GM: Some of the best energy savings opportunities are to eliminate waste, and some of the best areas to eliminate waste is in a company's utilities via the water, air, gas, electric, or steam systems.
NARRATOR: With pumping system automation, HVAC computerized controls, and a boiler efficiency monitor, they can improve energy performance and get closer to certification.
KRIS BROWN, SPIRAX SARCO, SAFETY, ENVIRONEMENT & TRAINING MANAGER: When another company wants to do SEP, I highly recommend it because you're able to do those justifications quicker, easier. SEP gives you the guidelines that say, "Hey, you want to start here, you want to end up here. And here's how you get there."
FRED FENDT: If you're going to go ahead and identify opportunities and have an energy team and do those kind of activities, you might as well do it within a structure like SEP because then you're getting credit, there's additional transparency and recognition for the work that you're doing.
NARRATOR: Go to superiorenergyperformance.net to find out how your plant can maximize energy savings. In these harsh economic and intensely competitive times, SEP provides the tools and framework to help you save energy and money, and through its certification process to be recognized as a leader in sustainable manufacturing.