Neenah, Inc.: 50001 Ready Facility

Solutions

The existing Energy Team at Neenah Inc.’s paper mill in Whiting, Wisconsin learned about 50001 Ready after joining Wisconsin’s utility-funded energy efficiency and renewable resource program - Focus on Energy. The mill’s manager and employees recognized 50001 Ready as a beneficial way to elevate the facility’s ongoing efforts to streamline daily operations, reduce the mill’s energy footprint, and take advantage of utility incentives to save energy.

Connecting monthly energy savings to specific energy activities or projects has enabled the Energy Team to incorporate its most successful measures into other parts of the mill. The 50001 Ready process strengthened existing energy management practices by adding useful measurement and evaluation steps and helped the facility obtain national recognition for its energy achievements.

Implementing a 50001 Ready Energy Management System

50001 Ready Implementation: The Whiting mill’s Energy Team found the action items in the 50001 Ready Navigator tool very useful. The team’s earlier work in connection with the Focus on Energy program had generated a policy, action plan, and performance metrics, so only a few additional (yet valuable) steps were needed to complete the 50001 Ready process.
Energy Team: The mill’s existing six-person Energy Team is led by the mill’s environmental engineer; other members represent financial, mechanical, quality, and technical aspects of mill operations. The 50001 Ready procedures have helped the team work to ensure that energy savings will continue, even in the event of personnel changes at the mill. Team meetings include a Focus on Energy consultant who regularly supplies input and updates on utility incentive programs. To keep the entire mill workforce engaged, the team is now developing dashboards to display energy data in worker breakrooms and other locations.
Energy Performance Modeling: Neenah’s Whiting mill used DOE’s Energy Performance Indicator (EnPI) Lite tool to quantify its natural gas and electricity savings, helping to verify previous calculations and obtain 50001 Ready status.
Keys to Success: The Whiting Energy Team offers two key tips: (1) track your progress and maintain good documentation to avoid backtracking, and (2) share all energy management documents by placing them in an intranet/shared-drive folder to keep everyone on the same page. The team found it useful to work through the 50001 Ready Navigator in conjunction with the Strategic Energy Management manual provided by Focus on Energy.

Other Benefits

Implementing an energy management system helped the mill increase its production efficiency, accelerate machine speeds, and save on raw materials. Energy efficiency measures implemented in 2016 and 2017 provided over 530,000 therms/year of natural gas savings and 1.6 million kWh/year of electricity savings. Achieving 50001 Ready recognition has confirmed the ongoing value of the mill’s energy management system (EnMS) in generating continuous savings, further elevating awareness of energy efficiency within Neenah Inc.’s Whiting mill workforce. The mill’s energy management activities have strengthened standard operating procedures and work instructions, which have helped to improve both safety and operational efficiency at the mill, leading to reduced maintenance and downtime.

50001 Ready activities have reinforced the value of systematic energy management and support the Neenah Inc. Whiting mill’s efforts to encourage mill-wide awareness of opportunities for energy savings. Benefits of 50001 Ready beyond energy savings have heightened corporate interest in energy management and may encourage even greater investment in future energy management projects.

ANNUAL ENERGY USE

ANNUAL ENERGY COST

ANNUAL WATER USE

ANNUAL WATER COST

ANNUAL PLANT ELECTRICITY USE

ANNUAL PLANT ELECTRICITY COST

IN BUILDING ENERGY USE

IN BUILDING ENERGY COST

ACROSS NETWORK USE

ACROSS NETWORK COST

ANNUAL EMISSIONS

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ANNUAL WASTE COST

ANNUAL WASTE USE

Neenah, Inc.: 50001 Ready Facility

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