Energy management key practices for universities in Malaysia

Abstract

Energy management is essential to ensure the efficient energy usage, cut energy cost and improve environmental quality. However, without the list of phases and key practices of energy management, the facilities manager fails to implement energy management effectively. This has been confirmed through a preliminary study. In realizing that, the objectives of this research were to identify phases of energy management for universities in Malaysia and key practices of energy management for universities in Malaysia. The scope of this research is 29 public and private universities in Malaysia. The respondents of this research covers energy experts, facilities managers, and departments responsible for energy management in the universities. This study was conducted in four different stages, namely: preliminary study, literature review, expert review, and questionnaire surveys. Preliminary study was conducted to identify the issues of the study. The list of energy management phases and key practices was ascertained through literature search. Then, the list was reviewed by energy experts on its relevance in context of energy management and whether the key practices were appropriately distributed among the phases. The questionnaire was developed based on the revised list of energy management phases and key practices from expert review. Then, the questionnaire survey was conducted throughout the universities in Malaysia. Descriptive analyses were carried out to analyze the data gathered, including frequency analysis, mean analysis, and standard deviation. The results of the study indicate that there were three phases (Planning, Implementing, Monitoring and Evaluation) and 47 key practices of energy management. To show their degree of importance, the identified key practices were ranked accordingly to their mean values.