Not all industrial facilities have the staff or the opportunity to perform a detailed audit of their operations. The lack of knowledge of energy efficiency opportunities provides an important barrier to improving efficiency. Benchmarking programs in the U.S. and abroad have shown to improve knowledge of the energy performance of industrial facilities and buildings and to fuel energy management practices. Benchmarking provides a fair way to compare the energy intensity of plants, while accounting for structural differences (e.g., the mix of products produced, climate conditions) between different facilities. In California, the winemaking industry is not only one of the economic pillars of the economy; it is also a large energy consumer, with a considerable potential for energy-efficiency improvement. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Fetzer Vineyards developed the first benchmarking tool for the California wine industry called "BEST (Benchmarking and Energy and water Savings Tool) Winery". BEST Winery enables a winery to compare its energy efficiency to a best practice reference winery. Besides overall performance, the tool enables the user to evaluate the impact of implementing efficiency measures. The tool facilitates strategic planning of efficiency measures, based on the estimated impact of the measures, their costs and savings. The tool will raise awareness of current energy intensities and offer an efficient way to evaluate the impact of future efficiency measures.
