METI to review the energy conservation targets for electric furnaces, etc. ― Decision on interim report
On February 3rd, “The Working Group on EC Guideline for Factories, etc.” (WG, Chairman: Dr. Shinya Sasaki, Professor at Tokyo University of Science) of Subcommittee on Energy Conservation of the Energy Conservation Working Group of the Advisory Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (an advisory body of METI) decided on an interim report that includes a review of the industrial sector benchmark system. The review will be applied to the electric furnace ordinary steel manufacturing industry, electric furnace special steel manufacturing industry and paper manufacturing industry. For the electric furnace ordinary steel manufacturing industry, the target will be revised to the level being achieved by the top 15% of business operators.
Benchmark is a system which set the level of energy consumption efficiency to be aimed for each industry type and requires achievement. The purpose is to encourage the energy conservation efforts by business operators. The system was first introduced in FY2009 to the manufacturing industry with large energy consumption and it expanded to the distribution and service industries in FY2016.
For electric furnace ordinary steel manufacturing industry, there were differences in energy consumption intensity among business operators due to the differences in rolling process for each product to pass through. Based on that, the correction coefficient was prepared by the field survey in business operators to calculate the energy consumption intensity of each type of steel.
Benchmark for electric furnace ordinary steel manufacturing industry is calculated by the sum of the upstream process intensity (energy consumption per amount of crude steel) and downstream process intensity (energy consumption per amount of rolling). Target value was 0.143kL per 1 ton so far, and it will be revised to 0.150kL per 1 ton as an achievable level for the top 15% of the business operators.