Industrial sector accounts for more than 40% of domestic energy consumption

RIYADH: The Saudi Energy Efficiency Program (SEEP) has succeeded in curbing the high consumption of energy in the industrial sector from 2011 to 2015.
Energy consumption by the cement industry dropped by 3 percent against an estimated production growth of 26 percent. Meanwhile, energy consumption by the petrochemical industries recorded a decrease of 2 percent against production growth levels of 6 percent.
The success of the program in reducing the high consumption of energy in the industrial sector was the result of determining the level of energy consumption of the industrial sector and limiting the burden of energy-intensive industries, such as petrochemicals, cement, and iron.
The measures included the development of a mechanism for raising the efficiency of energy consumption in the three aforementioned industries, and requiring factories to achieve the goals for raising the efficiency of existing factories, and those being newly established, by the end of 2019.
They also included the development of a monitoring mechanism to verify compliance of existing factories and those that are newly established with the standards put in place through coordination between 11 government bodies, in addition to facilitating the lending processes to companies by the Saudi Industrial Development Fund to the energy-intensive industrial sector to support and finance the projects. And finally, the measures included ways to improve and increase energy efficiency in factories and their equipment.
As a result of these measures, 42 industrial companies (including 180 factories and production lines) agreed to commit to achieving the goals and requirements of energy efficiency, and implement them, in accordance with the aims of the Saudi Energy Efficiency Program (SEEP), to achieve energy savings of the industries covered in the program by 9 percent by the end of 2019, compared to consumption levels of 2011.
Consumption of the industrial sector in the Kingdom is more than 40 percent of the total domestic consumption of primary energy, while industries, including petrochemicals (feedstock included), cement and iron combined, constitute approximately 85 percent of the total consumption of the sector.
The establishment of SEEP helps the Saudi government to find practical solutions to address the issue of waste in energy consumption in the Kingdom.
The list of tasks to be implemented by the program was topped by developing a national program to rationalize and improve the efficiency of energy consumption “in coordination with 30 governmental, corporate and many institutions in the public and the private sector.”