| Abstrakt: |
Environmental pollution and the rapid decline in the availability of fossil fuels are the major concerns of the electric power industry in recent years. Effective utilization of electrical energy is the need of the hour in building the nation towards sustainable development. This study presents the energy consumption analysis and management performed in a diary firm located in Tamil Nadu, India. Initially, the energy usage of the firm is estimated based on its electricity bills, meter readings, and survey followed by detailed energy consumption analysis and evaluation. The study employs guidelines provided by the Indian Bureau of Energy Efficiency for energy management. The detailed analysis performed finds scopes for improvement in efficient energy usage. Numerical analysis shows that implementation of proposed action plans that include installation of automatic power factor correction, replacement of overheating equipment, and replacement of lighting systems with energy-efficient lighting would save annual energy of 123.96 kWh which in turn results in the reduction of annual CO2 emission by 117.76 tonnes. Furthermore, this paper also proposes a novel optimal process scheduling which optimally schedules different processes in the firm without affecting productivity. This makes an additional savings of INR 4,23,360 per annum in the energy cost by minimizing the maximum demand of the firm with zero investment. A comparison of the proposed approach with existing methodologies available in the literature shows the effectiveness of the proposed technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
