Assessment of the Market for Compressed Air Efficiency Services

Compressed Air Market Assessmentwho had indicated some interest in the topics covered.This strategy did have the intended effect of increasing response rates.The overall response rate for this assessment was in the 40-50% range.In comparison, for a study we recently conducted with end users of industrialmotor systems in the Northeastern U.S., where the sample containedfew contact names, the response rate was in the 10-20% range.The Plant Engineer subscription list was narrowed down to establishmentsin 11 2-digit SIC codes, as shown in Table 2-1. These 11 SIC codes representindustries that are either ranked in the top nine industries in motorenergy usage of compressed air systems or have at least 20% of theirmotor energy usage accounted for by compressed air systems (SeeTable 2-1). Twenty interviews were initially allocated to each SIC groupfor a target of 220 total assessments. An additional 2 were completedwith SIC 29 customers for a total of 222 completed assessments.ImplementationXENERGY employees designed the evaluation with the assistance ofthe Compressed Air Challenge ® . It was then programmed into a CATIsystem and administered by Atlantic Marketing Research of Boston,Massachusetts. The questionnaire was pretested and XENERGY staffcontinually oversaw the interviewing process. The interviews werefielded in July and August, 1999.FINDINGSCharacteristics of CustomersTable 2-2 presents the distribution of the 222 establishments interviewedby a measure of size, the number of employees. The majority of the interviewedestablishments (71%) fell into the medium range of 100 to 500employees. By contrast, 83% of manufacturing establishments employfewer than 100 persons. This result reflects the selection of the PlantEngineer subscription list as a starting point. We cannot determine theextent to which the list reflects the population of all manufacturingestablishments with compressed air systems. However, the objective ofthe approach was to identify customers with significant compressed airsystems who could respond knowledgeably to fairly technical questionsconcerning system management. We believe this objective was achieved.Characteristics of Compressed Air SystemsNumber of Compressors. Table 2-3 shows the distribution of customersby number of air compressors in their facility for both this study and thePG&E customer survey. Both studies found that almost all customers had2 or more compressors in the facility. Findings from the New Englandstudy suggest that, in most cases, at least one of the compressors wasused for back-up capacity. On the whole, it appears that those interviewedfor this assessment had larger compressed air systems: 68%had 3 or more compressors versus 45% in the California sample. 114U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY1 Personal communications with PG&E staff suggest that their industrial customers fall into the small/medium categories.