Energy Saving Potential for Non-Designated Factories: A Case Study of Thailand

Abstract

Energy saving potential for non-designated factories which are medium and small size factories was investigated. In Thailand, factories are classified into two major groups called designated and non-designated factories. Designated factories are controlled their energy consumptions by law but non-designated have no seriously enforcement in energy conservation by the government due to low level energy consumption per factory. However, the number of non-designated factories are 123,064 factories accounting for 95.58% of all 128,761 factories. Thus total energy consumption of non-designated factories is significant and should be considered for energy efficiency measures. 32 samples of non-designated factories in 4 industries: ice cube, rice mill, concrete and drinking water, that located in upper part of north-eastern Thailand were surveyed. Energy consumption data, production volume in 12 months, main energy consumed equipment and their energy conservation measures were investigated and analyzed. Linear regression method was used to determine the specific energy consumption (SEC) of each factory and compared with SEC of the same industry, then the potential of energy saving was evaluated by 2 methods i.e. comparing the SEC of each surveyed factory with the best SEC in same industry, comparing the SEC of each surveyed factory with the SEC of designated factory in same industry. Results showed that the potential of energy saving for ice cube, rice mill, concrete and drinking water industries were 608.31 toe/year, 234.87toe/year, 29.92 toe/year and 6.04 toe/year respectively. These potentials are in total of 879.14 toe/year, accounting for 40.71% of their 2,159.65 toe/year total energy consumption. The results of 32 samples suggested that non-designated factories have a great energy saving potential thus there should be a policy to cover this numerous factories for energy consumption and saving.