Valero Energy Corporation Case Study

This paper identifies the critical elements of a successful energy management program for energy-intensive process industries. It describes the organizational structure, strategies employed, resources required, and results achieved at a national oil company in a middle-eastern country, drawing upon the author's extensive experience. It also describes some of the challenges encountered, both expected and unexpected, especially with respect to non-technical issues such as culture change, knowledge sharing, human resources, project financing, and politics. The paper provides valuable insights into how to organize and successfully execute a comprehensive energy management program for large bureaucratic corporations with multiple plants and that should be of interest to corporate energy managers and government energy policy makers.

World Lumen Congress 2021, 2022

The last years are distinguished by increasing the awareness of companies towards sustainable business, going beyond their traditional role of providing goods and services at competitive prices to meet customer requirements. Thus, companies will have to consider the effects of their best practices on the environment and society, in order to contribute to the progress of society and the protection of the environment, the essence of sustainable development being the coexistence of economic and social relations and environmental protection by implementing economic, social and environmental objectives. We can see that every company that seeks to become sustainable must consider approaches based on sustainable business practices geared to meeting customer needs. For companies listed on the stock market, the index that stands next to each company is the one that shows the level of sustainability, through corporate sustainability, long-term value is created for shareholders, taking into ac...

Energy Policy, 2005

Energy service companies (ESCOs) are expected to play an important role in promoting energy efficiency in countries outside of the US. However, there have been no studies examining the current level of ESCO activity internationally. To correct for this deficiency, a survey was conducted in the Fall of 2002 to collect information on the following key topics for selected countries: (1) the number of ESCOs; (2) the key sectors targeted by ESCOs; (3) the four most important barriers facing the ESCO industry; (4) the approximate value of projects conducted by ESCOs in 2001; and (5) the future of the ESCO industry in that particular country.

Energies, 2022

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

2012

Approaching the end of the long and winding road of doctoral research I would like to thank all those who supported and inspired me during this process. To start with, I am deeply grateful for the sound and steady guidance I received from my supervisor Professor Ted Lindblom. Thank you for giving me the freedom to develop my ideas and for your help to steer this thesis safely into the harbor. I am equally thankful to my assistant supervisor Ph.D. Anders Sandoff, especially for his inspiration and confidence in me ever since I was a bachelor student. I would never have dreamt of doing a Ph.D., if it weren't for you Anders! My further thanks go to Professor Filip Johnsson and Tech lic. Bo Rydén, project leaders of 'Pathways to Sustainable Energy Systems' and 'Nordic Energy Perspectives', in which I was involved. I am sincerely grateful for the research funding provided during the first three years of my Ph.D. I am also indebted to all participating researchers for sharing their experience and providing me with a basic understanding of energy issues. Inspiration is a rare commodity! I want to express my gratitude to all who spread plenty of enthusiasm about research at various Ph.D. seminars, especially Professors Irene Henriques, James P. Walsh, Volker Hoffmann and Ph.D. Timo Busch, as well as fellow Ph.D. students at the 11 th ETH PhD-Academy. I further want to thank Professors Alexander Styhre and Tommy Andersson for their constructive comments at my final internal seminar, as well as Ph.D. Petter Rönnborg for providing valuable advice on an earlier draft. Sincere thanks go to those who read parts of my work along the way and helped this thesis improve. To all researchers at Industrial and Financial Management & Logistics: thank you for having me here! I am also sincerely grateful for the funding received from the Department of Business Administration at the School of Business, Economics and Law. In the same spirit, I would like to thank the case companies for making this study possible, and my interviewees for open-heartedly sharing their knowledge and experience with me. You made this research meaningful and exciting! Many more made this journey enjoyable. Marissa and Oxana, thank you for your faithful companionship over the years, sharing happy and confused moments. To my former colleagues Kristina and Merja, your moral support and encouragement meant a lot to me! My appreciation goes to many others at the school with whom I worked, spent time, or who supported me in any other way:

2005

Over past 25+ years, energy service companies (ESCOs) have emerged as a successful way of carrying out energy efficiency improvements in industrial and institutional facilities. At the same time, facilities are entrusting their energy manager (EM) with the responsibility of reducing energy costs without fail However, this is often not accompanied by investment capital or people support from management, or at least not in proportion to the task assignment. One channel of supporting the EM is through use of ESCOs in forming a “partnering” arrangement to reduce both facility operating costs as well as provide for infrastructure needs without new capital outlay approvals by the corporation, and doing this rapidly. To make this partnership a success, EMs and ESCOs need to complement each other by bringing their respective strengths to bear on a potential energy cost savings project. The EMs can help in optimizing project planning and the swift corporate approval process, and the ESCO can bring focused expertise at practical energy efficiency opportunities suited to the client, and a keen focus on swiftly completing measures for the mutual benefit of the owner and the ESCO. This article addresses the EM/ESCO partnership, along with a recent successful case study.

2002

The electric utility industry is undergoing rapid changes in response to political, economic and environmental forces and expectations. California has become the focal point of debate regarding the ability of our existing energy production and delivery infrastructure to provide the kind of reliability required by corporations so dependent upon electricity for day-today operations. At the same time, growing concerns over global climate change is increasing the value of renewable energy technologies. Moving from a central power plant model to a more distributed system featuring a greater diversity of fixed-price renewable fuels offers solutions to an array of energy challenges facing companies in the industrialized world. This fundamental paradigm shift also offers major growth opportunities for companies developing new technologies whose most critical contribution to the global economy and environment may indeed occur in the developing world. Those companies that seize this opportunity to upgrade our aging energy infrastructure in the industrialized world, or foster new approaches to energy in the developing world, may prove that the ultimate corporate environmental strategy lies with distributed renewable energy systems.

IslamiCity

Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali, a celebrated figure during the Islamic Golden Age, is more commonly known as Imam Al-Ghazali (450H/1058 - 505H/1111). He was an eminent Muslim jurist, Sufi scholar, and thinker. Recognizing Al-Ghazali’s great potential, the Seljuk regime appointed him as their scholar to counter challenges posed by philosophers, Batiniyyah, rationalists, and others. As a versatile scholar capable of debating and reasoning with opponents, Al-Ghazali earned the title "Hujjatul Islam" (Proof of Islam). Despite being identified as a philosopher by some, Al-Ghazali distanced himself from this label due to the controversies surrounding philosophers of his time, such as Al-Kindi (801-873), Al-Farabi (872-950), and Ibn Sina (980-1037).