The Solomon Energy Intensity Index (EII) is a proprietary benchmarking metric developed by Solomon Associates to quantify and compare the energy efficiency of petroleum refineries, pipelines, terminals and similar process assets. EII normalises actual site or unit energy consumption against a “standard” energy consumption established for facilities with similar size, configuration and throughput, producing a single index that facilitates comparative performance assessment across peers and over time.
For operations, maintenance and sustainability leaders in energy‑intensive industries, the Solomon EII provides an objective, comparable measure of how efficiently a site or unit uses energy relative to an industry reference. Organisations use EII to prioritise energy‑saving projects, track improvement programmes, benchmark performance versus peers and meet regulatory or voluntary reporting requirements that reference Solomon’s methodology.
Calculating and reporting EII reliably requires consistent, high‑quality operational and utility data (energy meters, fuel use, production throughput, unit boundaries and operating conditions). Modern data integration practices - including semantic harmonisation of measurements and tags, time alignment and audit‑grade data pipelines - reduce manual effort and accelerate the step from raw measurements to validated EII scores and management reports. Good data integration also enables downstream use cases such as unit‑level root‑cause analysis, real‑time anomaly detection and product carbon‑footprint (PCF) attribution that build on the same harmonised dataset.
Typical Applications and Use Cases
- Refineries and petrochemical sites benchmark site and unit energy performance against industry peers to identify high‑impact improvement opportunities and to prioritise capital and operational projects.
- Regulatory compliance and incentive programmes use Solomon EII as an accepted reference metric for demonstrating improved energy performance or meeting state/national reporting requirements.
- Energy managers integrate EII into EnMS dashboards and KPI reporting to track progress of energy‑conservation measures and to support ISO 50001 auditing workflows.
- Pipeline and terminal operators apply EII to normalise energy consumption across diverse assets, enabling comparisons that account for differences in configuration and operating regimes.
- Data and analytics teams use harmonised operational data (from historians, DCS/PLC, ERP and metering systems) to automate EII calculation, reduce manual reconciliation and enable advanced analytics such as predictive optimisation and explainable AI built on consistent inputs.
Sources
- Solomon Associates - Solomon releases EII metric for worldwide liquid pipeline and terminal studies
- Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 173-485-030 - definition referencing the Energy Intensity Index®
- ENERGY STAR - Professional Engineers’ Guide for Industrial Plant Certification (references Solomon EII)