Energy conservation is the efforts to reduce energy consumption. Energy conservation can be achieved through increased efficient energy use, in conjunction with decreased energy consumption and/or reduced consumption from conventional energy sources. Energy conservation can result in increased financial capital, environmental quality, national security, personal security.
Electrical energy conservation is an important element of energy policy in every organization. It reduces the energy consumption and energy demand per investment unit and thus offsets some of the growth in energy supply needed to keep up with organization growth. This reduces the rise in energy costs, and can reduce the need for new equipments with increasing energy consumption. The reduced energy demand can provide more flexibility in choosing the most preferred methods of energy production.
Normal procedure of how one observes the use of energy in a system is:
- Interviews, questionnaires – to get general idea of how the energy is consumed in the location
- Equipment & operation observation – to check the condition of devices in the system
- Data and document checks – to get the past behaviour of the energy consumption
- Preliminary survey – to get the update and more accuracy consumption trend
- Problems pick-up – to summarized all the information in 1 to 4
- On site survey and measurement – to get the specific and necessary data in the analysis process
- Drafting of countermeasures – to pin-point the problems and make solution plans of the system
- Final conclusion and recommendation – to finalized the most suitable measure for the location
There are three types of solutions to improve the energy conservation.
- Enhancement of operation and management – To enhance energy management based on the current setup, so as to improve operation (at least measuring instruments may be required)
- Improvement and additional installation of equipment – To improve or retrofit some facilities with only a small investment, so as to achieve higher energy efficiency as well as to recover waste energy
- Change in process and introduction of high efficiency equipment – This step is intended for improving or updating process and manufacturing equipment. It involves technical development and large-scale investment, but on the other hand produces a substantial effect.
