In 2008, Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) established an Energy Effi cient Design (EED) Special Working Group (SWG). Its

membership consisted of members of the SEI¿s Energy Agreements Programme and engineering design companies.

The aim of the SWG is to promote EED as a means to develop the most signifi cant energy-saving opportunities for the least initial investment at the project design stages. Recent EED projects sponsored by SEI, as a background to the development of the SWG, indicate that opportunities of up to 50% may be available but often are lost at these crucial stages.

The primary objective of the SWG was to develop an EED methodology to provide a guideline on implementing EED in Irish industrial design projects. Where investor companies adopt and engineering design companies

This EED methodology document provides companies with a framework to ensure that energy

management is addressed at the earliest possible stage, to realise the energy-saving potential with the shortest payback and to comply with the requirement of scope of the IS393 Energy Management System.

Specifically it provides the basis for complying with the Specifi cation and Procurement requirements of
IS393; however, if it is used to the maximum intent of the methodology, the benefi ts will be greater.

It is important to note that adopting IS393 is not a necessary precursor to implementing these guidelines.

The benefi ts of EED include:
¿ It reduces energy usage arising from projects in the operational phase
¿ It reduces capital costs in both utilities and processes
¿ It provides a framework for developing an energy-management system for new projects

EED helps investors to design, construct and manage projects so that they consume the minimum quantity of energy during
their subsequent operation.