Energy costs may
not be the highest cost in the overall operation of facilities for SMEs and SMIs but with the more competitive and demanding market due to changes in
consumer trends locally and globally,
every cent counts especially for those who produce price sensitive products or
services.
Financial
barriers often being highlighted as one of the biggest obstacles in pursuing
energy efficiency in the form of implementing energy saving initiatives at most
energy using sector. In most cases, the bigger the investment, the more
significant savings can be achieved that will make everyone involved in the
process satisfied with their involvement in the initiatives that give benefits
to the organization.
However,
getting the approval to make the big investment is often not an easy task and
process too and can resulted in ignoring initiatives that will smaller results,
less costly and sometime no costs involved at all but much more practical,
achievable in shorter period and also
sustainable.
This zero
or less costly initiative is a part of the
bigger term called energy management and in easier definition, actions that we
can take within our existing tasks in to day operations related to energy
consumption that will help us to reduce energy consumption without affecting
the output of the operation.
There are many successful stories
where various energy using facilities did or investing in big projects involving
retrofits or application of newest energy efficient technologies with big money
involved too. At the same time, we can also achieve greater energy efficiency
in energy performances with small budget and certainty through small
improvements in daily operations.
What can be done?
Here, I would like to share some
tips from my personal experiences and some reading at online materials as energy efficiency industry practitioner for
more than 15 years about implementing energy saving initiatives where no or minimal
costs are involved which are the need to:
i) Understand the energy efficiency
facts of all or at least energy using equipment or system.
The
energy consumption of different types of equipment can vary if we compare the
actual performances against the manufacturer’s specifications or other
independent energy performance ratings or standards. By knowing some basic
specification related to the efficiency of our equipment, it will give us some
ideas on what equipment require some proper monitoring and controls of its
operation and why we should consider
energy efficiency features for future replacement of the equipment although the
initial costs is generally higher
compare to standard products.
ii) Measure energy consumption for
energy using equipment/areas with permanent sub-meters.
The measurements of energy data has been proven
effective in leading to produce energy cost reduction provided it is properly
planned and implemented. We need to know how much
electricity we use at our facilities and how much energy being used for each
energy using system or equipment such as air conditioning and/or heating
systems, compressed air system and lighting. The accurate information on
specific energy consumption by each major equipment will help us to focus on energy saving
initiatives and any improvement on energy to these biggest
users will be most likely to give more significant results in energy cost
savings. With budget constraint, the installation of sub-meters is recommended
to be carried out reasonable time frame and gradually covered identified areas
or equipment in stages.
iii) Monitor the actual energy
consumption trends based on real-time data gathering from sub-meters.
The gathering and
analyzing of energy consumption trends and status of based real time data will
enable us to make immediate decisions to prevent possible more energy waste.
This often occurred when recorded data
to be checked only when waste identified after the data collected and analysed
by the end of the month or week or when the equipment have operational
problems. When we can monitor our equipment to see if it is performing
optimally, we will be able can do a much
better job of providing preventive maintenance and may
also predict a pending failure.
iv) Benchmark energy use
across the operations and to understand the effects of energy market trends.
The energy consumption
data gathered from all major equipment will be useful for benchmarking purposes for equipment with similar characteristics that will make us better prepared to
evaluate the likely effects of new equipment or processes.
We also need to be well
aware of national trends in energy supply and demand. If we have been notified
that the cost of electricity is likely to increase soon, it may be an important
consideration as we plan what types of improvement or new technologies to be
used to minimize energy wastage that will keep the cost of production to be
affected at a very minimal.
v)
Understand the effects of operation and
maintenance activities to energy cost for equipment.
The operation and
maintenance of major energy using equipment has a huge effect on energy
consumption and the rising energy consumption for every of equipment may indicate
the need for maintenance. Therefore, it is important to link the data on
real-time energy consumption to the maintenance records which the data will
help us to see correlations that may provide opportunities to reduce energy and
maintenance costs.
vi) Use historical energy
consumption data to plan and reduce future energy needs.
If the historical
energy consumption data on monthly or yearly basis and analyzed, we can
identify anomalies that may present opportunities for further efficiency. The data on past energy use can be used to identify anomalies in current
consumption, which may present opportunities for improvement.
Challenges in
the current scenario
In the wake of
current energy market trends in Malaysia where the rationalization of energy
subsidies has started and will continue gradually in the way forward, any price
increase will definitely will hit all SMEs and SMIs in different ways
financially. Petrol and diesel subsidies reduction already started recently and
subsidies to gas and coal to be revised and expected to be followed by
electricity tariff increase by early next year.
The increase of
energy price for fuel for transportation and operations such as petrol, diesel
and gas and the soon to be increased electricity tariff is something that
everyone has to deal with but the way everyone has to deal with also need
different type of support mechanisms.
Unlike
multinational or big companies which has the resources and capacity internally
or appoint external parties, SMEs and
SMIs do need the assistance in technical
and advisory for them to identify and
implement energy saving initiatives and then to sustain their energy efficient
operations in a long term.
With SMEs &
SMIs represent about 99.2% of total business establishments in
Malaysia that provide employment for
about 56% of the total workforce based on 2010 report, they have been and will
always be the important source of growth
for the nation in. They will play a major role in Malaysia’s new economic model
to transform Malaysia from a middle-income economy to a high-income economy.
What is needed?
There have been
several financial assistance available for SMEs and SMIs that can be utilized
with regard to improve energy performance for their facilities in the use of
more energy efficient technologies and also for
human capacity buildings such as the RM200 million for Tabung
Kumpulan Usaha Niaga (TEKUN), RM1.5 billion in soft loans for companies
employing green technology and RM3.5 billion for basic infrastructure and
amenities as well as training programs and socio economic programs to spur
growth of economic corridors. However, the extent of utilization of these funds
in relation to energy efficiency that will reduce their energy cost is unknown.
However, more is
needed in term of the accountability of which entity will be responsible to assist
and facilitate facilities operated by SMEs and SMIs technically to reduce
energy costs through energy performance improvement. SMEs and SMEs require ongoing
supports and guidance especially at the early stage of energy management which
is to identify the potential energy saving measures, then to kick-off the
implementation and later to monitor and improve their energy performance.
At present
condition, the industrial energy users and energy efficiency industry players have
been given run a round by the government with no clear or dedicated agency
entrusted to perform the much needed assistance and guidance. What is so
puzzling now, under the same ministry, there are several agencies carrying out
various energy efficiency initiative namely Energy Commission, Malaysia Green
Technology Corporation and SEDA Malaysia.
To make thing
more confusing to the market, energy users and industry players are also often
referred to other agencies or entities with regard to some procedures or
processes related to energy efficiency project implementation at government or
private facilities. To certain extent, some of these agencies and entities are
competing with industry players to capture some shares for the same services in
market despite their roles that are suppose to create and assist the industry
to grow. This has created uneven playing field between them and industry
players where some of these agencies and entities are funded through grants or
other financial assistance under the government budget.
The results of
all these fragmented approaches with almost no one centre that can be called
one stop , energy users have to spend so much time and efforts just to seek
answers to their queries or assistance to their applications which is clearly
will be counter productive to their businesses where every minute is a cost to
them.
When all these will stop?
I guess only the
responsible ministry for energy could answer that and to do what are necessary to
meet the plight of these SMIs and SMIs especially. Where energy costs
appear likely to continue rising and energy use so central to the health of
many businesses, rising energy costs will definitely pose more significant
risks to SME and SMIs.
We can mitigate some of these risks by planning now
to increase our energy efficiency in the coming years but we need every party to
play their roles because the efficient management of energy is a system and
system will subsequently fail if some of key components are not functioning. In
energy efficiency, government is one of the key components in the system which
is now in a malfunction mode.