Introduction

In the previous chapters, a number of cases were shown in order to stress the importance of energy efficiency optimization at the micro level, as well as at the macro level. The importance of energy efficiency optimization in relation to an organization's performance cannot be underestimated.

At the national level, the energy sector has to supply the required quantity and quality of energy to users (especially industries) at minimum cost, because industrial productivity is responsible for the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) growth and economic prosperity. At the micro level, a sufficient quantity of energy must be available at the lowest cost, to sustain operation and in some cases to ensure an organization's survival.

In complex, energy-intensive industries, comprising thousands of energy-using pieces of equipment and many process units, it is imperative to know which are the units that consume maximum energy and which are the energy-intensive pieces of equipment that need to be monitored critically and whether the equipment is performing well. This is the most important information that must be made available to the plant manager before developing energy efficiency models for optimization.

Industrial Energy Database

This is the most important activity for making apt energy management decisions at the industrial level to control energy cost. For this purpose, the starting point is the equipment design data and the process licensor's guarantees, especially with reference to the efficiency characteristics of various equipment, such as heaters, boilers, turbines, and compressors. From experience, this aspect has been found to...