The New Nation - Internet Edition

Abdul Wadud

Bangladesh government has taken a massive programme to distribute 10 million fluorescent bulbs under a definitive arrangement to replace equivalent number of incandescent bulbs in the country with a view to saving energy vis-à-vis reducing load shedding The program has been taken reportedly as per the prescription of the World Bank and under funding (loan or grant!) of the same agency. According to the govt version the programme will result in immediate saving of 250-300 MW of electricity. The cost of the project has not been made public. But considering the cost of a 15 Watt fluorescent bulb as TK200 the project cost will not be less than 200 crore taka which means we are spending Tk 1 crore to save 1 instantaneous MWof power.Apperently cost benefit does not give testimony that it is an attractive project. Moreover it is a very short term project and the benefit accrued is not enjoyable even for a year. In any way the government may have other priorities to go for the project and no body should go against this project when the government is at a loss to cope up with the short fall of electricity. Rather the government should be congratulated as they have given at least some attention to the efficiency aspect of energy.

The total energy consumption in Bangladesh including gas oil and biomass is presently about 35 mtoe(million tons oil equivalent).of which 45% gas 15% oil and the rest is biomass. Energy consumption is increasing at a rate of 5% over the last five years. The most alarming factor is that the reserve of gas which is 45% of the total energy demand is depleting with no news of discovery of new gas field. So increasing the efficiency of energy use (Energy Efficiency [EE]) with a view to deriving more service value from each primary unit consumed has large economic and environmental benifit.and should be viewed as of paramount importance particularly in view of the present energy crisis in the country.EE is defined as economic investments in energy generation, delivery and end-use equipment, facilities, buildings and infrastructure that deliver higher useful energy outputs or services. This definition covers diverse and distinct market segments both on the supply and use side. The supply side includes efficiency in generation,, transmission and distribution. The end-use side covers industrial energy efficiency including changes in production technology building end use efficiency in commercial, governmental and residential sectors; municipality structure (street lighting, water, waste and sewage; transport efficiency, irrigation (e.g., efficient pumps, foot valves and piping) and equipment/appliance standards

Energy conversion being always inefficient is an important area of attention of supply side in EE programme.A steam turbine in a power plant rejects 60% of the heat in the fuel. A hydro power plant spills water without generating electricity if the grid demand is low and internal combustion engines waste heat in friction and exhaust gases. Such low efficiencies leave considerable room for the industry to pursue research to develope more efficient energy technology. Considerable efficiency improvement in coal-based power generation is now possible by producing high parameter steam in ultra super critical boilers.(over 45% plant efficiency ) Another example of a simple project is greater use of the combined cycle gas turbine which are more efficient because of the recovery of waste heat. Supply-side EE will involve adoption of proven, state-art of the technologies for poor generation and machines that have higher operating efficiencies. Very often utilities seek to implement new projects that use older technologies because of the higher comfort level in dealing with the equipment. This attitude needs to be changed. Technology transfer should be mainstreamed in all energy applications and necessary training support should b e included in project design to address risks of operating error.

Following energy conversion in a power plant losses are also incurred in the delivery of electricity. As less than 40% of the primary energy input in the power plant is available at the output, further transmissions distribution (T&D) losses seem excessive. A T&D system is designed for a particular consumer demand in the supply area. It has some surplus capacity to meet the demand growth for future say 5years.Under these conditions T&D losses should not exceed 8%.But in reality it is over20%.T&D is a significant EE market segment requiring the adoption of commercially available advanced technologies. Investments made to reduce R&D losses will easily be recovered through increased revenue.

Energy use-side efficiencies are required across all sectors: commercial, industrial, governmental, and residential and transport. The technical and economic potential exists to save 20%-40% of energy use in a broad range of applications, such as in motors, air conditioners, controls, water supply, lighting and efficient combustion systems. In the case of large energy-intensive industries such as paper, cement, fertiliser, steel etc, new production technology with energy efficient technogy is evolving progressively. EE programs should be undertaken based on cost benefit analysis in these industries to save energy. Some examples are waste heat recovery in paper, cement, power generation and biomass cogeneration in sugar industries.

The energy efficiency awareness is historically absent in Bangladesh. If we start from generation side we would find that little attention is attached to the efficiency aspect. Power plants are of different sizes and based on different systems of generation. We know that small power plants are less efficient than larger ones.Now days we must not go for a power plants below 500MW.But we are sill going for power plans of capacity less than 10MW.The rental power plants recently set up or going to set up are some examples of our attitudes of indifference to the energy efficiency aspect. It is well understood that the decisions to set up rental power plants were made under compelling situation of supplying power on an emergency basis. But it is also equally true that such emergency is man made. If we come to the system of generation we would see several systems of generation are adopted in Bangladesh. A steam turbine mode of genera ion is always more efficient than a gas turbine mode of generation. Our engineers are fully aware of it. But still they opted for that. May be the power plants were built on some grant or tied loan and the authority had no other option than swallowing that inefficient mode of generation. A combined cycle power plants are said to be most efficient mode of generation. But it is bigger size power plants and need larger capital investment which is always an impeding factor in our country to provide. So we compromise and go for a cheaper one at the cost of efficiency. All these have significant contribution towards casting dark shadow on the energy resource in the country. Setting up efficient power plants are not enough to maintain efficiency in the system. Efficiency has to be monitored and maintained on a regular and continuous basis.

If we look at the consumption side a similar dismal picture will be available. The large industries which are energy hungry are all in the domain of public sector. The fertilizer industries consume about 15% of gas supplied in the national grid. But most of them are inefficient as far as the energy consumption is concerned The first fertilizer factory was built in 1961 at Fenchuganjin in Sylhet district. It is presently consuming about 75000 cft of gas to produce 1 metric ton of fertilizer whereas in KAFCO an MNC owned company the consumption of gas is only 25000 to produce the same quantity of fertilizer. It may be argued that Fenchuganj fertilizer factory was built 20 years before KAFCO and naturally technogy was not that efficient at that time like that of KAFCO.But what about Polash fertilizer factory? A Plant of inefficient technology was purchased in mid eighties even when the KAFCO was a glaring case in the realm of our knowledge. However the authority had no option to choose as the plant was built on some grant. The jamuna fertilizer factory built in late eighties was the latest fertilizer factory built in the public sector. It was built on cash foreign exchange under open bid. The authority got enough freedom to choose an efficient technology.Hoever the irony is that though at the beginning 2600 CFT of gas was required to produce 1 MT of fertilizer now the same has gone to 3200 CFT per MT of product. It is a sheer example of our indifference to efficiency aspect of operation. So building efficient plants is not enough to inhibit efficiency but to keep and sustain efficient is also another challenge.

Similarly Chhatak Cement Factory which was built in 1946 as Assam-Bengal Cement Factory is another energy hungry Plant in the country though it is a small plant and its overall energy demand is less compared to the total demand in the Jalalbad gas grid in Sylhet. It was built on wet process which is still continuing. Now the modern cement plants are all based on dry process consuming about half of the energy required than that of wet process to produce same quantity of cemant..Two BMR programs were executed in the plant since its inception. But the process could not be changed to dry because of the smaller size of the plant. The size of the plant could not be expanded because of the limitation of supply of supply limestone which is imported from Komorrah an adjoining boarder area in India though the area has huge source of limestone to support even a 1 million ton cement plant. The irony of fact is that Lafarge Cement Factory which is a one million ton dry process cement plant located in the same area is being fed from almost the same source.

Paper Mills are other energy hungry entities. It is more so when it is an integrated paper mill. It needs huge amount of energy to cook the fibrous raw material like bamboo or wood. to make into pulp. The other area of energy consumption is in drying paper in the paper machine. In a modern paper mill the steam consumption to dry 1 MT of paper is 2 MT whereas in many paper mills in Bangladesh about 4 MT of steam is required to dry 1 MT of paper. The situation is worse in the private sector paper mills most of which were built on old machineries imported from abroad after they were abandoned by the original owners and disposed of at a nominal price.

If we analyze other process industries like sugar, steel we will notice similar situation of our indifference and negligence to the efficiency aspect of energy consumption. The sugar mill in our country consumes more than 4 MT of steam to produce 1 MT of sugar whereas even in our neighboring country the consumption of steam is 2 MT to produce 1 MT of sugar.Hoever the sugar industries are not bothering our national gas grid as their source of energy to generate steam is bagasse which is a waste of sugar mill. They have got more freedom to use bagasse in any way they like as North Bengal Paper Mill at Paksey which is their competitor to use baggasse for paper making is closed for long. The steel mills particularly the rolling mills are areas where gas utilization efficiency is very low.

The energy efficiency aspect is very neglected in our contry.The negligence is not only in the national level but it is more so at the micro level also.Vigillance about energy consumption in process industry where energy consumption is high is very important. But regular monitoring and analysis on a regular basis is almost absent. In early eighties the govt took some initiative to monitor energy consumption pattern in selected process industries in public sector. An organization named Energy Monitoring Unit under Energy Ministry was set up to monitor these activities. They were active in the initial stge.They set annual target targets of energy consumption in some selected process industries in the public sector. They monitored the performance against these torgets.However it failed to provide any tangible result because of lack of patronization at the policy leveland absence of definite laws and regulations in this respect. though EE has large technical and economical potential. The economy does not need energy per se, but rather energy services i.e. transport drive power cooling, refrigeration, pumpig, lighting etc. EE means delivery the services with less primary energy. In developed county EE is viewed as a source of energy. According to International Energy Association (IEA) it is estimated that without the energy savings in the 25-year period from 1973 to 1998, the energy consumption in OECD countries would have been almost 50% higher which makes the contribution of EE greater than that of oil and coal.

One of the main reasons that EE initiative or energy conservation drive did not meet success in our country is that there was no EE monitoring agency in our country. Energy Monitoring Unit under Energy Ministry was a name only organization without any mandate under the umbrella of law. Recently the last care taker govt drafted an ordinance as regards energy conservation .It has to be made into law without any further delay. A department of energy conservation under Power Division is believed to be proposed. It should be a body with technical skills, dedicated to implementing national EE policies.EE agencies have the mission and capabilities to (1) design, implement and evaluate programs and measure;(2) contract a range of stakeholders, such as companies, local authorities or nongovernmental agencies and(3) ensure coordination with higher or lower levels of authorities(international,national,regionaland local).In some countries, such as India and Thailand energy conservation laws have been promulgated to ensure continuity of public efforts and better coordination of the various actions and measures.

EE Agency should have to adopt strong policy instruments to make the EE initiative a success. Experience has shown that labeling programs and performance standards are effective policy instruments which enable authorities to benefit from low cost energy savings, consumers to spend less on electricity and manufacturers to improve their products and become more competitive. Energy labels for household appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines and air conditioners are mandatory in some countries icluding PRC, Philppines and Thailand. Fiscal and economic measures such as tax reduction,acceleratd depriciatin.ivestment subsidies or soft loans through EE funds may be offered to industries,householdsand the service sector in order to encourage the implementation of EE programs.Publicitiesand advertisement should be made in the print and electronic media to awareness of the benefits of EE.Annual energy audit should be mandatory in industries and service departments.

It should be borne in mind that EE policies and measures are not free rather they involve a cost for the taxpayer. As a general rule, EE policies and measures are economically sound if the macroeconomic benefits of the increased EE due to these policies and measures outweigh the overall cost for the taxpayers. The policies and measures will become more attractive and effective when the difference between the benefits and the costs increases.

(Abdul Wadud Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering, International University of Business Agriculture and Technology, Dhaka)