Energy Consumption in Indian Non-Ferrous Industries: Need for Bench Marking of Data

Being an energy-intensive industry, the energy usage pattern in the non-ferrous metal industry merits close observation with the intention to bring down specific energy consumption for all metals. United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has taken up extensive programmes for international benchmarking, based on data available from individual industries of various countries. Major producers of non-ferrous metals across the globe have initiated measures to reduce energy consumption per unit weight of product at important production steps and have gained substantial benefits. Adoption of superior technology has been shown to also mitigate emission of toxic gases. Extensive Reports and Reviews, particularly from the European Union countries and organizations such as International Aluminium Institute, have made available extensive verifiable data on the energy usage by the member countries. However, although the non-ferrous metal sector in India has been on expansion mode, the industry in general is reluctant to publish data on energy usage in various plants and measures to mitigate emissions. The actions of concerned government agencies in this direction are neither transparent nor available in public domain. Extensive and verifiable data for each step of production can identify Best Practice Technology (BPT) as a first step, based on which subsequently benchmarking standards for energy consumption can be arrived at.