ABSTRACT
A well-designed energy management and energy reduction programme can save significant amounts of capital expenditure. To implement a successful energy reduction programme, managers and engineers must recognise the fact that each consultant and supplier has their strengths and limitations. Energy reduction opportunities classified as housekeeping include the reduction in wastage, leaks, machinery idle time, production rate losses, untended taps and hoses. However, as the energy reduction opportunities now involve process and manufacturing operations, they may cause other problems that affect product quality. These energy reduction opportunities can bring about further reduction in energy consumption, product and raw material recovery. Energy reduction projects should be aimed at identifying and reducing the observed energy variation. The exact energy reduction for each business and location will depend heavily on where they are in the energy efficiency maturity model, where they want to be and how fast the business wants to close the gap.
