Electrical Energy Efficiency

Technologies and Applications

Andreas Sumper, Angelo Baggini

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781119942061
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Tecnologia e ingegneria
• Subtopic: Risorse energetiche

The improvement of electrical energy efficiency is fast becoming one of the most essential areas of sustainability development, backed by political initiatives to control and reduce energy demand.

Now a major topic in industry and the electrical engineering research community, engineers have started to focus on analysis, diagnosis and possible solutions. Owing to the complexity and cross-disciplinary nature of electrical energy efficiency issues, the optimal solution is often multi-faceted with a critical solutions evaluation component to ensure cost effectiveness.

This single-source reference brings a practical focus to the subject of electrical energy efficiency, providing detailed theory and practical applications to enable engineers to find solutions for electroefficiency problems. It presents power supplier as well as electricity user perspectives and promotes routine implementation of good engineering practice.

Key features include:

• a comprehensive overview of the different technologies involved in electroefficiency, outlining monitoring and control concepts and practical design techniques used in industrial applications;
• description of the current standards of electrical motors, with illustrative case studies showing how to achieve better design;
• up-to-date information on standarization, technologies, economic realities and energy efficiency indicators (the main types and international results);
• coverage on the quality and efficiency of distribution systems (the impact on distribution systems and loads, and the calculation of power losses in distribution lines and in power transformers).

With invaluable practical advice, this book is suited to practicing electrical engineers, design engineers, installation designers, M&E designers, and economic engineers. It equips maintenance and energy managers, planners, and infrastructure managers with the necessary knowledge to properly evaluate the wealth of electrical energy efficiency solutions for large investments. This reference also provides interesting reading material for energy researchers, policy makers, consultants, postgraduate engineering students and final year undergraduate engineering students.

1

Overview of Standardization of Energy Efficiency

Franco Bua and Angelo Baggini

Since the oil shocks of the 1970s, many countries worldwide have promoted energy efficiency improvements across all sectors of their economies. As a result of these policies and structural changes in their economies, these countries have been able to decouple primary energy use from economic growth.

The rate of decline in energy intensity has not remained constant over time; in most countries the rate of decline tended to be higher from 1970 to 19901.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that the oil price shocks of the 1970s and the resulting energy policies have apparently been more effective in controlling the growth in energy demand and CO2 emissions than the energy efficiency and climate policies implemented in the 1990s2.

However, since the early 2000s, the rate of improvement in energy intensity has tended to increase, possibly in association with the increase in energy prices and greater attention to climate change issues.

It goes without saying that, these days, improving energy efficiency has become a priority in the political agenda of all countries, being key to addressing energy security and both environmental and economic challenges.

In order to support governments with their implementation of energy efficiency, many organizations have worked out a broad range of recommendations and proposed actions for well identified priority areas3. Each country would select the policies that best suit its efficiency commitment as well as its unique economic, social and political situation.

A classification of these policy options and measures4 is given by the World Energy Council5 as follows:

• Institutions and programmes
  • Institutions: agencies (national, regional and local), Ministry department
  • National programmes of energy efficiency with quantitative targets and laws
• Regulatory measures
  • Minimum efficiency standards and labels for electrical appliances (e.g. refrigerators, washing machines, AC, lamps, water heaters, motors), cars and buildings (new and existing)
  • Other regulations for designated consumers: mandatory energy managers, mandatory energy consumption reporting, mandatory energy saving and mandatory maintenance
  • Obligation of energy savings for energy companies at consumers’ premises
• Financial and fiscal measures
  • Subsidies for audits by sector (industry, commercial, public, households, low income households transport)
  • Subsidies or soft loans (i.e. loans with subsidised interest rates) for energy efficiency investment and equipment by sector
• Fiscal measures
  • Tax credit
  • Accelerate depreciation
  • Tax reduction for efficiency investment, by type of tax (import, VAT, purchase, annual car registration) and by type of equipment (appliances, cars, lamps)
• Cross-cutting measures
  • Innovative communication tools
  • Voluntary agreements.

Exercises have been carried out extensively to measure how effective these energy efficiency policies are. As an example, IEA reviews the state of the art of the energy efficiency policies, highlighting strengths and areas for improvement (Table 1.1 and Table 1.2).

Table 1.1 Summary of strengths and innovations in IEA member countries’ energy efficiency policies in the building, industrial and transport sectors6

Buildings	Full implementation of building certification in several EU countries Policies promoting passive energy houses Energy efficiency requirements in building codes
Industry	High coverage of industry energy statistics in all countries Policies for promoting energy management Ad hoc policies for SMEs Policies for cogeneration, energy efficient electric motors
Transport	Policies aimed at rolling resistance of tyres Fuel efficiency standards for light and heavy duty vehicles (JP only) Eco drive policies Scrappage schemes encouraging purchase of more efficient and less polluting new vehicles

Table 1.2 Summary of challenges and areas for improvement in IEA member countries’ energy efficiency policies in the building, industrial and transport sectors7

Buildings	Establish stronger energy efficiency requirements for buildings Strengthen support for Passive Houses and zero-energy buildings Increase promotion of energy efficiency windows and glazing
Industry	Establish measures to optimize energy efficiency in motor driven systems Set up policies and measures to assist SMEs
Transport	Ensure the implementation fuel efficiency standards of planned policies Create fuel efficiency standards for heavy duty vehicles

Despite having a huge potential, energy efficiency policies8 are difficult to implement. Why? Energy efficiency faces pervasive barriers, including lack of access to capital for energy efficiency investments, insufficient information, and externality costs that are not reflected in energy prices. Moreover political commitment to maximizing the implementation of energy efficiency policies may also have been challenged by the current economic crisis. Energy efficiency programmes must compete for funding with other priorities such as employment, health and social security.

1.1 Standardization

As stated above, energy efficiency faces barriers to success. Examples of such barriers include: the lack of awareness of the savings potential, inadequate performance efficiency information and metrics, the tendency to focus on the performance of individual components rather than the energy yield or consumption of complete systems, split incentives and the tendency to focus on lowest initial cost rather than life cycle cost. Standards can help in overcoming some of these barriers. Standards, for instance, can provide common measurement and test methods to assess the use of energy and the reductions attained through new technologies and processes, as well as providing a means of codifying best practices and management processes for efficient energy use and conservation.

Furthermore, standards can provide design checklists and guides that can be applied to both the design of new systems and the retrofit of existing systems; they can provide standard calculation methods so that sound comparisons of alternatives can be made in specific situations and they can help with the adaptation of infrastructure to integrate new technologies and aid interoperability.

An overview of the current standardization activities on ene...