7. Energy Conservation Measures

Even though some industries have begun looking at their energy problem to find measures to save energy the effort is very insignificant compared to the magnitude of the problem of inefficiency. Some examples are;

(i) Proper maintenance of electric motors in textile industries brings down energy consumption considerably; about 3% of power consumption can be saved by improved maintenance. This also reduced repairs as shown by the fact that burnout of motors varies in frequency from one in three months/10,000 spindles to 8-20 in three months/10,000 spindles. The increase is 8-20 fold in the second case. Similarly burnout frequency varies from 1-7 to 60 for six months for 25,000 spindles.

(ii) Waste heat recovery in boilers can reduce energy use by about 10%. It is shown that the payback period is a few months.

(iii) Use of polyster cotton tapes etc. in textile mills will reduce consumption by about 10%.

(iv) Replacement of old boilers with high efficiency boilers and introduction of turbines and generators can reduce total energy requirements by more than 20-30%.

(v) Spindle speed is an important factor in energy consumption in textile industries. Proper speed can reduce energy use. In the survey the energy consumption varies from 60% to 165% (with the base of 100 chosen for one mill). This shows that proper speeds can reduce consumption.

(vi) In many industries, machine shops use lathes and other machines. There are thousands of these machines in our industries. Introduction of computer numerical control machines will reduce energy consumption and increase productivity.