TERI conducts energy audit for Rajkot foundry cluster

To enhance energy efficiency of the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) foundry units, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has begun an energy audit for Rajkot based foundry cluster.

Known as the Energy Efficiency in Small Enterprises (EESE), the project will run for three years and be carried in about total 110 foundry units comprising a Detailed Energy Audit (DEA) of a plant, tapping all forms of energy used in plants.

"Energy audit is a process of detailed energy study of an industry, where performance of each equipment and the processes involved is studied to arrive at certain energy conservation measures", said E Nand Gopal, research associate, industrial energy efficiency division of TERI.

Preliminary step of the energy audit is data collection from the industry, which include energy consumption (electricity, gas, and diesel) and production (tonnage of castings), along with list and details of installed equipment in industry.

The audit team later studies the data and decides which all instruments are required for detailed measurement, once finalised, measurement and study of equipment and the process is conducted. Scientific analysis of data is done to arrive at energy conservation measures.

"The MSME foundries are energy intensive industries wherein the energy cost usually is in the range of 12-20 per cent of total cost. The energy audit can help identify potential energy saving measures which can reduce this cost. Typically monetary saving of energy cost is around 15 per cent," said Bharat Davda, TERI technical consultant for Rajkot project.

TERI conducts energy audit all over India and abroad also. In Gujarat TERI has conducted detailed energy audit in various large industries and select MSME clusters including Ankleshwar Chemical Industry cluster. Earlier it had done energy audit for 100 foundry units in Kolhapur of Maharashtra.

TERI has received support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC) for implementing a project titled ESES.

Rajkot is one the major clusters of foundry units in India. There are more than 350 foundry units, mostly in the small scale sector. There is substantial scope of improving the energy efficiency of the foundry units by adoption of energy efficient technologies and best operating practices.

"After completion of the project, TERI will guide foundry units to get funding and technology they needed to make changes for more energy saving," E Nand Gopal added.