Assessment Of Energy Efficiency Measures Research Articles

Understanding the impacts of energy efficiency measures on a Company’s operational performance: A new framework

Energy efficiency has long been considered a key component of an industrial company’s competitive repertoire. However, despite the potential benefits of adopting so-called energy efficiency measures, their uptake in such companies remains low. In response, this study proposes a framework aimed at supporting key decision-makers in undertaking a thorough assessment of energy efficiency measures. This involves, on the one hand, providing a complete characterization of a general industrial energy efficiency measure and, on the other, identifying the multiple impacts stemming from its adoption based on a novel performance measurement system that encompasses sustainability features and is defined at the shop floor level. Once theoretically validated through literature, the framework is empirically tested with a heterogeneous sample of Italian companies. The preliminary results demonstrate the framework's ability to thoroughly assess energy efficiency measures, highlighting characteristics and impacts that are sometimes considered more critical than energy saving by industrial decision-makers and therefore able to guide the outcome of the adoption decision.

Assessment of Energy Efficiency Measures in Food Cold Supply Chains: A Dairy Industry Case Study

The quality of human nutrition has acquired significant improvements thanks to the opportunity to store food in suitable temperature conditions. Refrigeration has allowed the slowing of chemical and biological degradation and hence the waste of foodstuff, but at the same time increases energy consumption. These effects impact the environment and the sustainability performance of the cold chain, and drive consumers’ choices. The stakeholders of the chain are, therefore, constantly looking for improvement actions to reduce environmental impacts. This paper aims to provide a methodology for prioritizing and assessing the energy efficiency measures for cold chains in terms of quality losses and specific energy consumption, distinguishing between technological, maintenance, and managerial opportunities. This analysis is based on the cold supply chain tool, developed under the H2020 project ICCEE (“Improving Cold Chain Energy Efficiency”) which focuses on a holistic approach, not looking only at the individual stages of the cold chain. Furthermore, an economic evaluation has been proposed considering cost savings and the investment needed.

Assessment of Energy Efficiency Measures’ Impact on Energy Performance in the Educational Building of Kazakh-German University in Almaty

As climate change concerns are rising rapidly, energy efficiency promotion and implementation could be sustainable solutions within energy transition. In this context, buildings, including educational ones, play an important role in reducing energy needs and promoting energy efficiency since they account for a significant share of the total energy consumption. As a case study for this research, the educational building of Kazakh-German University was selected. Following the national and international building standards, energy performance parameters were estimated. Current heat losses and performance have been estimated as baseline scenario settings. The impact of retrofitting measures on energy efficiency performance of the buildings under the four scenarios was calculated. Under the minor scenario, retrofitting interventions will lead to annual energy savings of 36.9 kWh/m2 and a 48% CO2 emission reduction, whereas under the major scenario, the annual energy savings will increase to 77.76 kWh/m2 and a nearly 82% CO2 emission reduction. The integration of a solar thermal system with capacity 400 kWh, assuming that the heat demand was reduced under the minor retrofitting scenario, can decrease heat energy consumption and CO2 emissions to 35%. As upfront costs of the energy efficiency measures are high, a carbon offset mechanism could facilitate the implementation of university building modernization.

Assessing Energy Efficiency Measures for Hydraulic Systems using a Digital Twin

As manufacturing companies around the world face the challenge of reducing CO2 emissions and achieving their climate goals, increasing energy efficiency provides a promising solution while potentially reducing costs. Hydraulic systems are used in a wide range of applications such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning or machine tools and account for approximately 11 % of the electric energy demand in the German industry in 2017. Furthermore, up to 25 million tons of CO2 are emitted annually in Germany as a result of their operation. Against this background, the following paper aims to increase the energy efficiency of hydraulic systems through automated assessment of energy efficiency measures during system operation. Therefore, we present a modular approach for real-time assessing of energy efficiency measures using a digital twin, which contains an expert system combined with real-time simulation models. To detect inefficiencies without time consuming analysis and substantial user expertise, the expert system automatically identifies system leakage and increased flow resistance using a multi-output regression model. Finally, the expert system aims at engaging operators to implement energy efficiency measures by quantifying their respective energy saving potentials. The proposed measures are applied to the virtual representation of a hydraulic system in real-time. Therefore, a Modelica simulation model is developed, which is exported as a functional mock-up unit (FMU) and integrated into a Python framework. If measures lead to an improvement in energy efficiency, these are recommended to the operator. The overall concept is validated using a physical hydraulic system within the ETA Research Factory. The validation of the prototype shows that the developed approach can be applied to industrial applications and help in reducing their energy consumption.

The ICCEE Toolbox. A Holistic Instrument Supporting Energy Efficiency of Cold Food and Beverage Supply Chains

Abstract Cold supply chains of food and beverage sectors represent one of the main drivers of the EU total final energy consumption. Within this context, food quality losses, changes in temperature regimes, energy use, environmental burdens, and the economic viability of energy efficiency measures are essential aspects to consider for improving cold supply chains’ overall sustainability. This paper presents a dedicated toolbox, developed within the Horizon 2020 project ICCEE, for supporting decision-making and actors to assess energy efficiency path within a specific type of food cold-supply (i.e., meat, fish, milk and cheese products, fruits, and vegetables). More in specific the toolbox offers support for decision-makers to understand and minimize the specific energy consumption, to decrease the overall environmental impact even including non-energy benefit evaluation many times underestimated. The six separated tools merged within a unique toolbox consider different methodological approaches such as: assessment of the whole energy requirements in stock and flows considering the storage impact, the logistics and quality losses over time, implementation of Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle costs within the environmental and financial assessment of energy efficiency measures, based on a benchmarking approach. Finally, a specific approach implementing Multi Criteria Analysis was developed on selected key performance indicators such as specific and cumulated energy consumptions, quality losses and environmental burdens (i.e., global warming potential and water scarcity). The latest version of the ICCEE toolbox is available as free downloadable package on the ICCEE website.

Identification and characterization of decision-making factors over industrial energy efficiency measures in electric motor systems

Energy efficiency measures in electric motor systems are scarcely implemented and previous literature has largely overlooked the characterizing factors responsible for their adoption in industrial operations. The present study, after a comprehensive literature review, aims at supporting research by offering a framework for the identification of the factors that should be assessed when considering the adoption of electric motor systems' energy efficiency measures. The proposed factors are clustered in ten categories, namely: contextual factors, compatibility, economy, energy savings, production-related factors, operations-related factors, synergies, complexity, personnel and additional technical factors. After a preliminary empirical validation, the proposed framework has been applied in a selected sample of manufacturing firms. Findings show that factors more closely related to the firm's production and operations result most critical for the adoption of energy efficiency measures. However, the adoption process is also deeply influenced by their complexity or compatibility to the specific context application, therefore calling for an exhaustive assessment. The adoption of the framework would have reversed some firm's decisions over the initial uptake of energy efficiency measures that proved to have critical issues for their implementation. Therefore, the proposed framework provides additional support and further value to decision-makers especially for non-energy intensive firms, where the impact on non-energy production resources becomes more important, and small-medium enterprises usually present greater difficulties for a holistic assessment of energy efficiency measures. The study concludes with main implications for research and policy-making from the present study as well as suggestions for future research.

Sensitivity of heating performance of an energy self-sufficient building to climate zone, climate change and HVAC system solutions

The building energy behavior is strongly influenced by design choices made to contain energy losses through the envelope and to maximize the overall efficiency of HVAC systems. However, a thorough assessment of energy efficiency measures in relation to weather conditions is necessary. Ongoing climate change requires that design choices be also assessed in relation to projections of their future state.In this paper, the heating performance of real-world energy self-sufficient building, located in L’Aquila (Italy), is analyzed via calibrated EnergyPlus model. Different interventions are hypothesized for the HVAC system (biomass boiler, air handling unit, condensing gas boiler, air-to-water heat pump, their combinations) and effects are tested in relation to climate zone, by four Italian (L’Aquila, Rome, Palermo, Milan) and two European (Madrid, London) cities, and considering climate change to 2050 and 2080 for the city of L’Aquila.Results showed how heating system is influenced by weather conditions and what are the best choices in relation to them, ranging from 3.0 kWhm−2yr−1, achieved with combination of condensing gas boiler and air handling unit, to 54.2 kW hm−2yr−1, obtained with air-to-water heat pump. Finally, future climate change has highlighted significant reductions in heating energy demand between −8.5 % (2050) and −44.8 % (2080).

Combined Environmental and Economic Assessment of Energy Efficiency Measures in a Multi-Dwelling Building

The aim of this study is to assess how different renovation scenarios affect the environmental and economic impacts of a multi-dwelling building in a Nordic climate, how these aspects are correlated and how different energy carriers affect different environmental impact categories. In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the European Union has set an agenda in order to reduce energy use in buildings. New buildings on the European market have a low replacement rate, which makes building renovation an important factor for achieving the European Union goals. In this study, eight renovation strategies were analyzed following the European Committee for Standardization standards for life cycle assessment and life cycle costs of buildings. This study covers all life cycle steps from cradle to grave. The renovation scenarios include combinations of photovoltaics, geothermal heat pumps, heat recovery ventilation and improved building envelopes. Results show that, depending on the energy carrier, reductions in global warming potential can be achieved at the expense of an increased nuclear waste disposal. It also shows that for the investigated renovation strategies in Sweden there is no correlation between the economic and the environmental performance of the building. Changing energy carriers in Sweden in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can be a good alternative, but it makes the system more dependent on nuclear power.

Applying Energy Building Simulation in the Assessment of Energy Efficiency Measures in Factories

Manufacturing companies have been putting considerable effort in the implementation of energy efficiency measures since many years. By doing so they have been able to reduce energy consumption and increase productivity pursuing sustainable manufacturing practices. However, it has become more and more challenging to identify future energy efficiency measures, which meet the required cost-benefit ratio. The objective of this research is to improve prevailing methodologies used in the assessment of energy efficiency measures. Therefore we augment the system boundaries to the factory level and introduce a methodology that involves energy building simulation. Results show that the methodology proposed herein allows to quantify the propagating effects of singular energy efficiency measures within the factory environment. Besides, the consideration of non-energy benefits (e.g. thermal comfort) becomes possible. Being able to assess the multiple effects of energy efficiency measures is an important step towards the continuous improvement of energy efficiency in factories.

Assessment of energy efficiency measures using multi-objective optimization in Portuguese households

This paper presents an optimization model to identity the best set of retrofitting measures applied to four different regions of Portugal; Lisbon, Porto, Bragança and Évora. The main objective is to maximize the annual energy savings, expressed in Euros, while minimizing the initial investment expressed also in Euros, considering the retrofit strategies as decisions variables and evaluating their effect in the usage of space heating and cooling and costs, depending on the chosen technology. A multi-objective genetic algorithm coded in MATLAB© to solve the optimization problem. Different energy efficiency measures are considered, such as the improvement of U-values in external walls and windows through the application of insulation materials, the change of lighting fixtures and refrigerator model to reduce the electricity consumption, and the usage of PV panels for self-consumption, and the use of Heat Pumps for space heating and cooling. The fitness function is subjected to different constraints related with the fulfillment of the demand, the physical limitation of household space, the capacity to comply with the heating and cooling needs, and the non-negativity nature of the variables. The best set of retrofitting options are presented, the budget to implement them and the amount of achieved energy savings.

Analysis of the Monitoring Results of Modernized Residential Multi-storey Buildings

The main objective of the monitoring analysed in the article is to evaluate and make recommendations of the actual energy and technical efficiency of the implemented measures of the modernization of multi-apartment buildings. More detailed assessment of energy efficiency measures implemented by modernized buildings, measurements of indoor microclimate and their evaluation is made. Based on the actual heat consumption collected before and after the modernization of buildings, the thermal balance of the building was constructed under the normative conditions. The basics of the methodology, conclusions and recommendations are also presented.

Assessment of Energy Efficiency Measures on Indoor Air Quality and Microclimate in Buildings of Liepaja Municipality

Eight municipality buildings that have undergone major energy efficiency improvements have been studied. The main aim is to assess indoor air quality and microclimate in the context of energy efficiency, indoor air quality and thermal comfort dilemma in the studied buildings. Microclimate and CO2 measurements were carried out. Tracer gas method was used to determine air exchange rate and blower door tests were conducted to determine building tightness. Results show that ventilation systems are underperforming because they are not used as expected, thus leading to decreased indoor air quality and thermal comfort. Further assessment of economic aspects would be necessary to evaluate the indoor air quality impact on student and teacher health and productivity and its impact on municipality budgets.

Assessment of energy efficiency measures in the petrochemical industry in Thailand

Petrochemical industry is one of the most important industries that contribute to Thailand's economic growth. Its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission were approximately 170,000 TJ and 8300 ktCO2e/year in 2010. This research assessed 35 energy conservation measures implemented in the Thailand's petrochemical industry, categorized into the six following categories: 1) steam saving and steam loss reduction, 2) steam optimization, 3) cogeneration, 4) power saving by efficient chillers, 5) energy efficiency, and 6) waste energy recovery. The analyses were performed in energy, environmental, and economic perspectives using five indicators: 1) reduction in energy intensity, 2) reduction in carbon intensity, 3) energy consumption reduction on investment,4) greenhouse gas emission reduction on investment, and 5) abatement cost. The results show that, from energy and environmental perspectives, the cogeneration is the most capable of reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission which accounted for 82% of the total reduction, followed by the waste energy recovery and energy efficiency categories. From economic point of view, the most cost effective measure category was steam saving and steam loss reduction, followed by waste energy recovery and energy efficiency categories. The cogeneration category is found to have the low cost effectiveness due to its high investment required. The abatement costs of the energy conservation measures was calculated to assess the economic feasibility. Almost all measures were economically feasible, except for some measures under the energy efficiency category. To encourage non-cost-effective measures, carbon credits should be promoted to cover the implementation cost of the measure. The results in this research will be useful for industrial sector, petrochemical companies, and other interested parties for transformation towards industrial sustainability.

Assessment of energy efficiency measures: the case of the Lebanese energy sector

Assessment of energy efficiency measures: the case of the Lebanese energy sector

Assessment of energy efficiency measures: The case of the Lebanese energy sector

This paper examines in detail the electric energy sector in Lebanon on the levels of both the supply and end-use sides. The aim of the study is to assess the feasibility of implementing some energy efficiency options in the country. For this purpose, baseline scenarios will be first developed to examine the effects of government policies with regard to the energy balance, and then energy efficiency scenarios will be built for the residential, commercial and industrial sectors. Feasible options will be highlighted and recommendations to remove barriers hindering the fast penetration of energy efficiency programmes in the Lebanese energy sector will be provided. Throughout the analysis, uncertainties related to factors such as discount rates, demand growth and technology penetration rates will be treated by defining lower and upper bounds on their variations, and will be accommodated through scenario-type analysis. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.