Opinion
Energy Audit
Shah Zulfiqar Haider, PEng

Economic and efficient use of all sort of energy and its minimum loss is the aim of any industry, be it industrial boiler, electric motors or gas-driven equipment. Even in our household we are concerned about economic and efficient use of electricity, water supply to keep the bill to minimum. I think the day gas company puts meters in house connection, the same day we won’t see people saving match sticks at the cost of burning our expensive natural resource (!)

In today’s competitive world, the production cost should be kept to minimum to compete with others. There are industries which had to wind up because of higher production cost because of more wastage or losses in products manufactured, inefficient manufacture system etc.

Why we go for higher power factor, why we go to purchase equipments more efficient? All to minimize cost in the long run. So we are going for economic use of energy but not in a systematic way. There is always scope of improvement. There comes Energy Audit.

What is Energy Audit?

It can be simply called “economic and efficient use of energy with minimum losses“. Energy audit is a means of helping Industries to economize energy. This is very popular in developed countries where every one is concerned about energy saving. It can be done in Industries and other complexes. This can be done for residences, which will reduce our unnecessary electricity consumption. In India they are going for energy audit of Government offices, installations etc.

The Government can promote energy-efficient industrial practices. Financial incentive can be provided to help industries identify means to improve energy efficiency, productions processes and reduce costs. Private Financial institutions can also come up and help Industries in gaining energy economy.

This incentive may be designed to help defray the cost of hiring energy auditor or consultant to conduct an on-site audit of an industrial facility.

By using energy more efficiently in the extraction, refining and delivery of natural resources and in the manufacture of products, industry can become more competitive and help reduce Green House Gases that contribute to global warming and climate change.

A target or baseline is developed to characterize and benchmark energy use. Individual unit operations, processes and major energy-consuming equipments are evaluated to identify further improvement in efficiency opportunities and high return-on-investment projects. An action-oriented report describes each opportunity area, including an estimate of the cost to implement the improvements, the savings that will be generated and the payback period.

How do Energy Audits Benefit Industry?

Energy audits represent an opportunity to find out how to reduce energy costs by a minimum of 10 to 15 percent, often with payback periods of two years. In our country it may be more than 20% for old industries. It also establishes a baseline against which to compare future improvements and it help kick-start a company energy management strategy. 

Who Performs the Energy Audit?

Professional consultants are to be developed to conduct the energy audit. This will be an engineering consulting firm with experience in conducting industrial energy audits. The consultant should have relevant educational and professional experience and qualified staffs to conduct energy audit. They need to have proven record of responding to client needs. They can provide objective advice and has declared earlier any financial relationships with equipment vendors or service companies to the company seeking energy auditors;

Types of Energy Audit
a. Preliminary Audit
b. General Audit
c. Investment-Grade Audit

Who is eligible for an incentive?

Financial incentive should be provided to support industrial companies interested for full energy audit and its implementation. This may include companies involved in manufacturing, mining and upstream oil and gas activities, garments industries etc. If a company has facilities at more than one location and is interested in conducting separate audits at these facilities, it may apply for a separate incentive for each facility.

How does the Incentive Work?

The responsibility can be given Energy Regulatory Commission or Power cell for funding before having the energy audit done. The companies must apply to the Government agency. Once their application has been approved and a contribution agreement has been signed, companies are responsible for hiring, managing and paying the contractor for the work performed. They must submit a copy of the paid invoice from the contractor and the contractor’s final energy efficiency audit report to the authorized Government agency in order to receive the audit incentive.

Energy Audit in Bangladesh

We have energy auditors under GOB, but they are not fully functional. Their activities are also restricted. The Ministry, ERC, Power Cell etc may be requested to formulate regulation for energy audit with simultaneous development of technical persons and firms. Again, we should go for energy audit of all Government establishments which will then spread to all other industries, institutions etc. This way we will be able to save energy, valuable foreign exchange and compete worldwide.

Shah Zulfiqar Haider, PEng. General Manager-Noakhali PBS.