Energy Utilization and Production Assessment in a Cement Industry

Abstract

Cement industries are one of the fastest-growing economic sectors in developing nations like Ethiopia. It provides direct and indirect employment opportunities to a huge number of persons and contributes a major part to the nation’s gross domestic product. Thus, the main objective of this study was to analyze the usage of power consumption and rate of production in the particular cement industry. For this purpose, a comprehensive study was conducted in the Messebo cement factory in northern Ethiopia, one of Ethiopia’s key industries, which has unlimitedly contributed to Ethiopian economic development. It was achieved through primary and secondary data from the Messebo cement factory for the last seven years and compared with an actual and designed production rate and power consumption usage value. Besides money lost, profit and efficiency were analyzed based on the values of excess power used and production rate. From the results, the average usage of actual power and rated power has been observed to be 40.43 million kWh per year and 27.72 million kWh per year, respectively. In an average of seven years, the money lost due to excess power consumption and reduced production was estimated at roughly 4.4 million birr per year and 15 million birr per year, respectively.