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The NRDC’s Responsible Sourcing Initiative, Net Energy Savings After 2 Years for 10 Factories

Inefficient factories are dangerously exposed to rising and volatile energy prices. In 2008 oil hit $150 a barrel and in China coal reached 1,300RMB a tonne. Factories which bought coal and diesel for energy generation suffered large increases in production costs.

In China electricity prices are regulated by government, but electricity generation companies are lobbying hard for market pricing. In 2011 many electricity companies stopped producing electricity because production costs per KWh were higher than the regulated price.

Factories can reduce their reliance on expensive backup generators by becoming more efficient. In some areas, local officials may reward factories who are contributing to energy efficiency targets.

The Energy Committee should have top and middle management representatives from finance, environmental compliance, production and quality assurance. This committee will be responsible for setting energy reduction goals and developing the energy management policy.

Factories should establish a Technical Committee to collect and discuss relevant technologies, trends, and possible solutions to problems at the facility. This committee should be chaired by the chief engineer or the person with the highest technical capability in the business. The Technical Committee will be working closely with the energy committee to come up with technical ideas to help achieve energy and cost reduction goals.

Energy leaders at production level should be recruited to ensure production staff are engaged in the energy saving process. More detail can be found in the engaging employees section.[link] Lastly, an energy manager should be appointed and given suitable authority and resources to accomplish goals set by the energy team. It should also be ensured that there is no conflict of interest for this person’s role.

B. CONDUCT RESEARCH AND SURVEY ENERGY USERS

In order to identify areas with highest energy saving potential, companies must understand their present situation. Proper research into best practices for your industry and the latest technology available is the first step to knowing the starting point of your factory. In order to get an objective assessment of a facility, it is important to engage and educate all staff who use and manage energy, including carrying out a survey of their views. Included in this guide is information specific to the textile industry to help accelerate this process. See the Best Practices Section for more information on areas in your facility that might yield energy savings.

Factory assessment will provide the energy management team with the proper data to set goals and develop a timeline for implementing energy efficiency projects. This can be done in-house, but often it is better to employ an expert from outside the organisation.

The first step in assessing a factory is to identify the different forms of energy used at a site (electricity, diesel, natural gas, steam from an outside plant, etc) and the costs for each energy type. The second step is to assess the largest energy consuming processes and identify areas of waste. Waste comes in two forms: the physical leaking of energy and inefficiencies from using poor practices and outdated technology.

The largest energy using systems in a textile factory are:

• Spinning and weaving/knitting
• Wet-processing (preparation, dyeing, printing, and finishing fabric and yarn) – Uses a high amount of thermal energy in forms of both heat and steam and during steam generation and distribution
• Wastewater Treatment – Thermal energy loss
• Equipment – energy lost through heat and idling
• Product Drying – thermal energy loss from over-drying
• Motors, energy lost in pumps, fans, compressed air and material handling and processing

D. SET A BASELINE

Find out how the utility bills are currently being managed in order to collect the data necessary to set a baseline for energy and cost. Collect the utility bills for the last three years, and separate by energy type. Compare the total usage and cost for the three years, and look for trends.

E. PRIORITIZE AND SET A TIMELINE

The energy team should review the assessment results and prioritise projects that require little or no investment which result in quick savings. These savings can be used to fund the energy management budget. Then, focus on projects that have a payback of one year or less and can be funded by the energy management budget. Each project should be given a budget and timeline, and one person should be responsible for its delivery.

The person responsible should perform the energy saving activity as specified in the plan outlined at point 1 above. This could be done with an in-house team or a suitable energy efficiency consultancy. Typically consultants provide expertise for equipment installation, maintenance and upgrading, as well as helping companies to audit, analyse and plan energy efficiency programmes. In house teams are best suited to managing parts of energy efficiency programmes that deal with people, maintenance and operations. In each case the Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) procedures should be strictly followed.

For example, a consultancy could help to identify retrofitting a textile factory’s pumping system with variable speed drives as an energy efficiency measure with attractive investment payback. A vendor should then be identified to install the variable speed drives and integrate and optimise them (the vendor may not be the energy efficiency consultancy). But for the development and implementation of a policy for shutting down idle equipment, including the variable speed drive, the in-house team should be responsible.

• 1. Energy consumption. A function of how much energy (kilowatts) you are using at any given time multiplied by how long you use that energy, measured in kWh (kilowatt hours).
• 2. Cost. The total cost for electricity consumption, as well as rate analysis (cost per kWh), cost for demand charges and capacity charges.
• 3. Demand.The total energy draw in kW at any given time. Utility companies usually charge a facility based on the total contracted demand.

Utility Bills
The best way to collect cost information is from utility bills. A simple spread sheet that collects the key data elements to send to the energy manager will allow further analysis and identify cost saving opportunities.

Production and Weather Data
It is also important to compare production levels with energy consumption to understand the relationship between energy used for manufacturing and energy production.

Weather conditions can be an important factor in energy consumption; this data can identify the relationship, if any, between energy usage and weather conditions.

Energy meters are crucial for managing energy consumption. Modern metering system that automatically measure and record energy consumption at short, regular intervals such as every 15-minutes or half hour make it possible to see patterns of energy waste that would otherwise be missed.

Mechanical meters are insufficient to fulfil the need of monitoring energy, cost and deman; factories should install digital meters that allow for low cost data collection and reporting through energy management software.. Digital meters must be compliant with Chinese national standard for metering GB 17167-2006 or similar.

For electricity, which is the most complicated form of energy to manage, the monitoring system should measure and monitor the following areas in predefined time intervals – preferably every 15 minutes.

Interval data from meters will enable the energy manager to analyse energy consumption behaviour and identify what needs improvement.

• each transformer in service
• each separate building
• each floor if needed
• each cost centre
• each major energy system (such as a compressor)
• each large load (e.g. anything that exceeds 30 KW)

• 1. Monthly total energy consumption and cost report for each energy type used in the facility. This can be compared with the previous month and with the same month last year.
• 2. Energy intensity report tracking the ratio of energy consumption to production output. Each type of energy type should be compared to production output in order to identify any changes. This can help to identify if there are leaks or problems with specific energy systems such as the steam system or boiler.
• 3. Electricity usage broken down by time of use. Calculate off-peak usage (especially if you are a one or two shift factory) to identify if there is excess electricity being used during non-operational hours.
• 4. Demand (kW) interval readings to develop a demand profile. This can be used to identify heavy demand times during the working day and how to reduce demand and lower cost.

However, the rate structures can be very complex and confusing, so it’s important to ask questions of the utility company in order to understand how you are being charged for your energy.

Analysing electricity bills can result in quick and easy cost savings. If you are receiving a “power factor adjustment charge” or a charge for “reactive power”, you have a power factor problem. The good thing is that this is usually an easy and inexpensive problem to fix, and it can save you a lot of money. The first step is to figure out if you have a power factor correction panel, and if so, make sure it is working properly (that all capacitors and reactors, if any, are working). If it is working properly, and the factory has a lot of motors, there could be a harmonics problem.

• Maintain Steam Traps
• Insulate Pipes, Hot vessels and Tanks
• Process Cooling Water Recycling
• Rinse Water Heat Recovery
• Compressed Air System Optimisation

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• Instil a culture of energy conservation at their production team, with each worker and piece of equipment
• Develop conservation strategies specific to their work areas with their team
• Identify and implement Energy Conservation Measures
• Ensure there is no backsliding – savings must be maintained
• Share progress, lessons learned, and innovative energy practices with other team members

Employees should be involved in setting realistic energy savings targets. Progress towards these targets should then be included in any employee performance review. Targets are best set after putting in place an energy management system. [link to page].

Linking incentives to improvements in energy efficiency can have dramatic results. Interface Flor, an international flooring manufacturer, found incentivized targets based on energy reductions per metre of flooring produced helped improve energy efficiency.

It is very important that employees have the opportunity to suggest energy saving ideas. This harnesses employee knowledge of how energy is used in their day-to-day practices also develops a sense of employee “ownership” of energy saving activities.

To get employees started on sharing energy saving ideas, a structured survey is a good way to start.

Energy Leaders will be key for facilitating the involvement of staff in suggesting and implementing energy saving measure. These leaders could be foremen or supervisors or individuals who are responsible for machinery controls.

• What the strategy is and why it has been developed
• What is expected of employees in terms of actions/behaviour change
• Details of any competitions or incentives related to increasing energy efficiency
• Details of any technological changes the factory is making and how this will affect employees work
• How success will be monitored and reported

Communications serve to raise employee awareness and understanding of energy efficiency. You should also consider whether any specific education or training is required to help employees act on the messages received through communications campaigns.
Many companies designate an individual or group of employees (green teams) who are responsible for promoting employee engagement with a new energy efficiency strategy. These teams can be formed from volunteers or can be selected to ensure a suitable range of employees. Typically, green teams provide both information and encouragement to colleagues, and take responsibility for actions like checking everything has been turned off when the factory is closed.