Philip Dickemann

2024

Challenges in the industry trigger the need for energy management and energy cost accounting in enterprises. Adequate energy cost information is needed to perform energy cost accounting, thereby generating effective decision-making. However, there is a lack of papers describing the implementation and characteristics of ECAS in detail. Almost no studies provide a nuanced description of how energy costs are measured and allocated. This thesis aims to get insight into the implementation of the ECAS of a representative case - Daimler Buses GmbH - by investigation and detailed description, which comprises aspects of energy procurement, energy metering, energy cost allocation, and usage of energy information for decision-making in relevant departments. In addition, a conceptual framework is adopted to describe the characteristics of the energy cost accounting system. The result shows that Daimler Buses GmbH has relatively detailed information from energy suppliers and energy metering with advanced sub-metering tools. However, it is not detailed enough to allocate energy costs precisely to cost centers and products based on metered energy consumption. The company resorts to imprecise allocation because it is more profitable. Moreover, the energy team mainly undertakes in-depth analyses and proposals for energy-related decision-making. Moreover, the energy team mainly undertakes in-depth analyses and proposals for energy-related decision-making. Measured energy consumption in production and original energy costs are more often used for energy-related decision-making than information from allocated energy costs.