Industrial Retrofits are Possible

Abstract

Ontario is the industrial heartland of Canada and more than 80% of its energy comes from Canadian sources with the remainder from the neighbouring U.S. states. Because of the ever increasing demand for energy relating to increased economic activity, the provincial government's major energy priority is efficiency. In April of 1987, the provincial government initiated a program to assist industrial energy users to reduce their energy usage. This program was designed to concentrate on an in-depth analysis of the complete operations of industrial plants with the analyses being performed by specialist, private sector, engineering consultants. The program is in 3 phases providing an Ontario industrial plant with an Energy Analysis, a Feasibility Analysis Grant and a Project Engineering Design Grant. In this presentation, the author will outline the results of the program to date and will attempt to share with the audience the individual case experiences. Since the program's start, the Ontario Ministry of Energy has completed over 320 energy analyses of industrial plants which had combined energy bills of over $420 million. The potential annual energy savings identified were over $40 million or 9.51%. Electricity and natural gas are the major fuels used by Ontario industries and our surveys to date have shown savings of 6% in electricity and 11% in natural gas. Over the first two years of the program, individual plants have or are intending to implement more than half of the energy analysis recommendations.