Energy efficiency in South African industry

Abstract

Energy efficiency in South African industry has only recently started receiving attention due to the low cost of South Africa’s electricity, and a not too distant history of isolation leading up to democratic elections in 1994.This study shows that strong incentives exist for energy efficiency improvement in South African industry, in particular, the potential for increasing profit, the need to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the need to maintain economic competitiveness, and the need to delay the cost of new peak-load electricity generation facilities. Barriers to the implementation of energy efficiency projects need to be anticipated and addressed by managers, policy makers and energy efficiency practitioners. In particular, the lesson from the case study in this paper showed how organisation structure, financial controls and culture, can be barriers to the implementation of energy projects. By ensuring the support of top management, and by the initiation of an energy management program early on, these barriers can be avoided and results and recommendations from an energy assessment can feed into a receptive management system.