Energy Efficiency pays off: Lifecycle Cost Evaluation (LCE)

With the Lifecycle Cost Evaluation Tool (LCE tool), ZVEI offers a manufacturer-neutral, business-oriented instrument for calculating life cycle costs for investment decisions. This means that business effects from comparable efficiency measures are quickly made transparent.

Important questions for the success of energy efficiency measures are: How economical are my measures? Are investments in the energy-efficient and energy-efficient boosting technologies in my company also economically viable? 

These questions can be answered with the LCE-tool developed by ZVEI in cooperation with Deloitte and with the support of nine companies (ABB, Auma, Endress + Hauser, Festo, Krohne, Pepperl + Fuchs, Phoenix Contact, Siemens, Vega) . It may be downloaded here free of charge.  

This is how the LCE-tool works: After basic information such as purchase, energy and operating costs have been entered, the Excel-based tool compares the project alternatives based on their present value and the annuity. It evaluates which option is more energy efficient, which alternative leads to lower overall costs and then quantifies the differences. For instance, individual components, component strings and plant parts can be compared with one another. Since this is a purely business-oriented instrument, it is not limited to specific applications and technologies, but can be used extensively in industry and infrastructure. 

According to Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, for instance, cumulative savings of around €42 billion in energy costs can be achieved in the field of basic chemicals with investment costs of €10 billion by 2050. The investment costs essentially include additional costs for the use of more efficient machines and measures to increase the efficiency of industrial processes, for example modern measurement and control technology. In other energy-intensive industries such as the paper industry, the metal-producing industry and the processing of stones and rocks, similar results are to be expected. You may test the LCE-tool right here.