Energy management in large enterprises: A field study

Abstract

Energy managers are responsible for controlling business energy consumption. Wider adoption of energy management behavior would enable more efficient energy systems; however the costs of current energy management tools, tasks and training are beyond many small enterprises. Efforts to support more widespread energy management would benefit from better understanding the expert cognitive work performed at large enterprises. A preliminary study of this work was conducted by interview and participant observation. Energy managers apply skill in energy analysis, business management, and agreeable communication to cost-effectively monitor and report business-relevant energy findings. These activities are complicated by uncertainty in energy data and variability in business structure, which introduce tradeoffs between costs of social data interpretation and maintenance of complex datasets and models. To help clarify debate on appropriate design of energy management tools, tasks, and training, we propose four human-centered research topics of cues, trust, strategies, and sensors. Copyright 2011 by Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Inc. All rights reserved.