Cutting energy use by adopting automation
By Richard Fu |
June 20, 2012, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
FROM carmakers to textile plants, China's factories are introducing automation and advanced energy-saving devices into their production lines as rising wages bite profits.
The trend is in line with government policymaking bent on reducing energy use by the nation's biggest power consumers.
Foxconn, which makes products for technology firms like Apple and Hewlett-Packard, is planning to install 1 million robots in its plants. The company drew media attention in 2010 after a series of attempted suicides by employees forced it to agree to substantially higher salaries for factory workers in southern China.
"Things are changing here in China," said Jason Ai, vice president of Schneider Electric China. "But many industrial companies still consider upgrading equipment as spending, a cost, rather than an investment."
Schneider, the French power specialist, and global peers like ABB and Mitsubishi Electric are supplying devices and services for Chinese manufacturers to reduce labor costs and allow machines to do work with less energy, faster times and fewer mistakes.
The shift may also help Chinese manufacturers, known for cheap toys and garments in the past, churn out better quality products so that they can be certified by overseas customers and better compete with Western industrial rivals.
The trend is also in line with government efforts to develop high-end manufacturing like jet engines and to cut carbon emissions.
Target set to cut energy
China's government has set a target of cutting energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 2015 to 16 percent of its 2010 level. The nation missed the so-called "energy intensity" goal last year when it fell 2.01 percent, against a target of 3.5 percent.
For the 2015 goal to be met, according to a white paper released last month, China must improve efficiency by 6 percent in 13 "original equipment manufacturing," or OEM industries.
The industries, which range from food and textiles to paper and machinery, account for 9 percent of China's total energy consumption, according to the white paper by Schneider and ARC consultancy.
"Nine percent is equivalent to the output of about five Three Gorges Dams," said Ai, who is in charge of the OEM business unit. "We make huge savings for every 1 percent improvement we made in efficiency. The market is very promising because every machine has room to improve."
He added that increasing power tariffs are also prompting industrial companies to pay more attention to energy efficiency.
In the industrial sector, energy is mainly consumed by electric motors, used for pumping water, running fans and air conditioning, conveying goods over belts, rolling steel and moving elevators.
Wide use of electric motors
Industrial electric motors account for about a quarter of all the electricity consumed worldwide, according to ABB, the leading power and automation technology group.
The company said about 310 million megawatt-hours of electric power, or about US$34 billion in cost for customers at 2011 US electricity prices, were saved last year by its drives, which are used to regulate the speed and power consumption of electric motors.
The savings is equivalent to the annual power consumption of about 437 million Chinese, based on the average residential consumption in Beijing in 2010.
"The future potential for energy and cost savings is enormous since only about 10 percent of industrial motors are combined currently with electric drives," said Ulrich Spiesshofer, head of ABB's discrete automation and motion division.
"Using energy more efficiently will remain, for a significant time, the biggest opportunity available to cut energy consumption as well as costs and emissions."
In Shanghai, electric motors account for 80 percent of power use in the industrial sector, according to Shang Yuying, vice director of the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Information Technology.
The city has set up a special fund last year to support the upgrade of the motors, she said.
But she admitted the city's energy-saving potential in the industrial sector is not that big because it's already among the most efficient in China.
The trend is in line with government policymaking bent on reducing energy use by the nation's biggest power consumers.
Foxconn, which makes products for technology firms like Apple and Hewlett-Packard, is planning to install 1 million robots in its plants. The company drew media attention in 2010 after a series of attempted suicides by employees forced it to agree to substantially higher salaries for factory workers in southern China.
"Things are changing here in China," said Jason Ai, vice president of Schneider Electric China. "But many industrial companies still consider upgrading equipment as spending, a cost, rather than an investment."
Schneider, the French power specialist, and global peers like ABB and Mitsubishi Electric are supplying devices and services for Chinese manufacturers to reduce labor costs and allow machines to do work with less energy, faster times and fewer mistakes.
The shift may also help Chinese manufacturers, known for cheap toys and garments in the past, churn out better quality products so that they can be certified by overseas customers and better compete with Western industrial rivals.
The trend is also in line with government efforts to develop high-end manufacturing like jet engines and to cut carbon emissions.
Target set to cut energy
China's government has set a target of cutting energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 2015 to 16 percent of its 2010 level. The nation missed the so-called "energy intensity" goal last year when it fell 2.01 percent, against a target of 3.5 percent.
For the 2015 goal to be met, according to a white paper released last month, China must improve efficiency by 6 percent in 13 "original equipment manufacturing," or OEM industries.
The industries, which range from food and textiles to paper and machinery, account for 9 percent of China's total energy consumption, according to the white paper by Schneider and ARC consultancy.
"Nine percent is equivalent to the output of about five Three Gorges Dams," said Ai, who is in charge of the OEM business unit. "We make huge savings for every 1 percent improvement we made in efficiency. The market is very promising because every machine has room to improve."
He added that increasing power tariffs are also prompting industrial companies to pay more attention to energy efficiency.
In the industrial sector, energy is mainly consumed by electric motors, used for pumping water, running fans and air conditioning, conveying goods over belts, rolling steel and moving elevators.
Wide use of electric motors
Industrial electric motors account for about a quarter of all the electricity consumed worldwide, according to ABB, the leading power and automation technology group.
The company said about 310 million megawatt-hours of electric power, or about US$34 billion in cost for customers at 2011 US electricity prices, were saved last year by its drives, which are used to regulate the speed and power consumption of electric motors.
The savings is equivalent to the annual power consumption of about 437 million Chinese, based on the average residential consumption in Beijing in 2010.
"The future potential for energy and cost savings is enormous since only about 10 percent of industrial motors are combined currently with electric drives," said Ulrich Spiesshofer, head of ABB's discrete automation and motion division.
"Using energy more efficiently will remain, for a significant time, the biggest opportunity available to cut energy consumption as well as costs and emissions."
In Shanghai, electric motors account for 80 percent of power use in the industrial sector, according to Shang Yuying, vice director of the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Information Technology.
The city has set up a special fund last year to support the upgrade of the motors, she said.
But she admitted the city's energy-saving potential in the industrial sector is not that big because it's already among the most efficient in China.
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