Cement, Energy & Environment Jan-Mar 2002

analysis in an innovative way resulting in financially attractive energy savings. The ultimate objective of asking selected indus tries to provide, on a regular basis, relevant, detailed, consistent and accurate data about their energy consumption and other production parameters, is to provide a benchmark for comparison . Further, this would enable other members, particularly the less efficient ones, to understand their energy cos t reduction potential, and formulate conserva tion strategies. The present situation The conventional method of data collection is time consuming and expensive to mail out forms, receive the information, check its consistency, completeness and accuracy, analyze it s tore it somewhere and finally give useful feedback to the firm. •!• As experience in other countries shows, it would take one person to handle 50 firms. Considering an estima ted 5,000 industrial firms, a staff force of 100 would be necessary to oversee just one part of the act, viz, mandatory reporting of certain parameters to energy efficiency in industrial production. . ... Manual analysis of data and comparison with other thousands of entries is prone to mistakes, and would require extensive encoding. Often data checking a·Jso spins out of control into an iterative communication process with the firms' energy manager about missing entries on the form, entries that do not make sense or sound too optimistic. The new approach requires most firms to have access to the internet and a reasonable stable connection. 26 The new concept : The whole concept of electronic data forwarding by a firm to a server depends on several factors. These are further elaborated as follows: Energy manager The Energy Conservation Bill requires a firm to designate or appoint a certified energy manager (CEM) and offer training in future tasks. Further more it will be mandatory for designated consumers, such as large cement units, to submit their performance data periodically. As a first step, it will be necessary to: Adapt and develop specific reporting forms for the cement industry Pilot test and discuss these forms with representatives and consultants of the cement industry with respect to user friendliness and handling Prepare forms in an internet format and link it to a databank Field tes t the forms under real conditions with selected members of the cen:tent industry. Identifying errors and omissions There are ample chances of making mistakes while filling out the forms. In general, a large number of errors can be anticipated and checked through simple routines. These routines address different levels and types of errors, which can be typographical, format and boundary related, logical, plausibility, those violating basic laws of engineering / thermodynamics, or physics. In general, each form will be checked by a set of 50-150 routines b efore the d a t a is considered valid.