Analysis of the differences of the energy saving measures proposed by medium-sized industrial companies in Flanders, Belgium in 2006 and 2009

Panel: 1. Programmes to promote industrial energy efficiency

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Erwin Cornelis, (Privé), Belgium
Geert Reunes, Verificatiebureau Auditconvenant Vlaanderen

Abstract

This paper analyses the energy saving measures, proposed by the industrial companies in Flanders, Belgium, in order to fulfil the obligations of the Auditing Covenant, the voluntary agreement on energy efficiency to which they acceded. This voluntary agreement specifically targets medium-sized industrial companies with an annual primary energy consumption between 0.1 and 0.5 petajoules (PJ). The voluntary agreement started in 2005 and will end in 2013. In total 229 companies acceded; they belong to various industrial sectors including chemical and plastics, food and fodder, technology, textile, wood processing, printing and others. The concept is a bottom-up approach in which all of these companies were required to audit their energy consumption and look for energy saving measures, applicable and feasible in their specific situation. These audits took place for the first time in 2006 and for the second time in 2009, in full economic recession. This paper analyses the set of energy saving measures resulting from these audits and looks for differences in identified savings between industrial sectors and between the first and the second phase. More precisely, it verifies how the financial crisis affected their commitment to save energy and to what extent the companies shifted their focus from utility optimization to process optimization. It was found that the impact of the economic crisis is highly dependent on the economic strength of the companies; strong performing companies could maintain their level of commitment, while weaker ones proposed less energy saving measures or resigned from the covenant. It was also found that the participants indeed shifted their focus from non-process-related to process-related energy saving measures.