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Energy Strategy Reviews

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Energy management practices in Bangladesh's iron and steel industries

A.S.M.Monjurul Hasana,∗, Md.Tanbhir Hoqb, Patrik Thollanderc

a Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Bangladesh Army International University of Science and Technology, Cumilla, BangladeshbDepartment of Electrical and Electrical Engineering, University of Asia Pacific, Dhaka, 1215, Bangladeshc Department of Management and Engineering, Division of Energy Systems, Linköping University, Linköping, SE-581 83, Sweden

A R T I C L E I N F O

Keywords:EnergyManagementEfficiencyBangladesh

A B S T R A C T

The aim of this paper was to study energy management and improved energy efficiency among large iron andsteel mills in Bangladesh. The results show that there are some barriers to energy management practices amonglarge steel mills, the most important barriers being the perceived absence of cost-effective technical measures,high perceived risks due to uncertain future energy costs and poor information quality. However, this study hasshown that the reduction in energy costs due to improved energy efficiency constitutes the most important driverfor energy efficiency in the studied steel mills. The results also show that most of the steel mills have not had anytechnical energy efficiency improvement measures implemented in the production process. Moreover, the steelmills seem unfamiliar with the concept of including energy service companies, and the lack of information orawareness seems to be the main reason behind this. The paper also finds that energy efficiency is perceived to beable to be improved by 6%–8% through energy management practices.

1. Introduction

Bangladesh is an emerging economy with a rising level of in-dustrialization. The country has experienced a steady increase in theindustrial index over the past two decades [1]. Thus energy manage-ment in industry is becoming an important issue in the country's futurecompetitive edge as well as climate change mitigation activities. Energymanagement in industry is important from both governmental andbusiness perspectives. From the governmental point of view, energymanagement would mean increased efficiency and demand side man-agement of CO2 reduction; for business owners, energy managementmeans higher productivity and competitiveness [2]. Cheap electricityhas been a key to Bangladesh's development and the electricity gen-eration in the country is substantially subsidized, albeit the price hasdoubled over the last 10 years [3]. Considering the factors mentionedabove, it seems crucial for the country to have strong energy manage-ment incentives in the industrial sector. From a global perspective,research on energy efficiency improvements in the industrial sectors is agrowing field of research, with some examples being [4], [5]. There ishowever a need for an expansion of industry-specific energy manage-ment and improvement studies, not least in developing countries suchas Bangladesh.

According to a governmental study, the steel industry in the country

uses around 2.25% of the total primary energy consumed1 [6]. Alongwith the projected growth of Bangladesh as an industrial economy, thesteel industry itself is expected to grow by more than 15% [7], and asthis is an energy-intensive industry, energy management practices willbe even more important in the near future. Bangladesh's steel industryis an oligopoly in nature; even though there are 400 active companiesoperating in the market, the big three steel manufacturers BangladeshSteel Re-Rolling Mills (BSRM), Abul Khair Steel (AKS) and KSRM supplymore than 50% of the country's annual demand for finished steel pro-ducts [7]. These manufacturers also supply 90% of the semi-finishedsteel (billet) demand [7]. Thus, in this study, these three – along with afew other major players in the industry – have been studied in terms oftheir energy management practices. These manufacturers are themarket leaders with the highest production capacity for both final steelproducts and billet.

Energy efficiency terminology refers to managing and restrainingthe growth in energy consumption [8]. “Energy efficiency is the mostpromising means to reduce greenhouse gases in the short term” said Yvo deBoer (Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Conventionon Climate Change) in 2007. Later on, in the World Energy Outlook2013, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency Maria vander Hoeven also aligned herself with the statement that “Energy effi-ciency is the only fuel that simultaneously meets economic, energy security

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2018.09.002Received 18 December 2017; Received in revised form 20 May 2018; Accepted 3 September 2018

∗ Corresponding author.E-mail address: monjurul@baiust.edu.bd (A.S.M.M. Hasan).

1 Even though the thermodynamic laws state that energy cannot be consumed or produced, this is the term used in, e.g. the ISO 50001 Energy ManagementStandard, and it is also used throughout this paper.

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and environmental objectives” [9], [10]. Industrial energy efficiency isthe key anchor in the transition towards more carbon-neutral energysystems. While the energy efficiency potential area is quite vast, thereare many barriers to energy efficiency which hinder the implementa-tion of energy-efficient measures and the transition to a sustainablefuture [11–13].

The aim of this paper was to study energy management and energyefficiency among large iron and steel mills in Bangladesh. The aim ofthis study is divided into four major research questions:

• What is the energy efficiency potential in Bangladesh's large ironand steel mills?

• On what system levels are energy efficiency technologies and mea-sures currently implemented in these mills?

• Do the mills have any existing long-term energy strategy?

• What are the barriers to implementing the energy efficiency mea-sures?

Similar studies of energy management practices and energy effi-ciency have been conducted in other countries, for example studies onthe Swedish iron and steel industries and Ghana's largest industrial area[14], [15]. Also, there have been studies on foundries by accumulatingresults from industries of a few different European countries [16], [17].

However, to the author's knowledge, there have not been any pre-vious studies regarding the energy management and efficiency practicesof the steel industry in Bangladesh. There is thus a lack of researchlooking at ways of improving the current practice in the industry.

1.1. Use of energy in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in theworld with 162 million people in an area of 147,570 km2 [18], and thepopulation is expected to increase even more in the future [18]. Thetotal GDP on purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2014 was 499 millionUSD [19], and given stable conditions this is projected to increase to3367 million USD in 2050 [20]. In different studies it has been shownthat growth in GDP has a positive causal relationship with the growth inenergy consumption [21–23], which with the population growth in-dicates a sharp increase in energy demand in Bangladesh in the future.Subsequently, the future GDP growth is also dependent on the avail-ability of energy for the growing industrial sectors. The installed ca-pacity of Bangladesh's electricity system in August 2016 was12,780MW including 600MW power imported from India [3]. Theinstalled capacity increased rapidly over the course of a few years dueto favorable governmental policies to invite private investment andindependent power producers (IPP). These companies are now produ-cing 46% of the total power in Bangladesh [3]. The government iscommitted to supplying electricity to all citizens by 2021. Presently,only half of the total population has access to electricity, and the supplyis far from reliable [24].

A significant portion of the total energy consumption (55%) issupplied by traditional biomass fuel such as fire wood, dung and cropresidues. The rest is supplied by natural gas, imported oil and coal, aswell as hydroelectricity [6]. Fig. 1 [6] shows the primary energy supplyby sources in Bangladesh.

Electricity production is heavily dependent on natural gas, andaround 80% of the electricity is generated from natural gas, 7% fromcoal, 6% from oil and rest from other sources [6], [24]. The pie chart inFig. 2 [6] shows energy and electricity production by sources in Ban-gladesh.

Disregarding biomass sources used mainly in rural areas, gas andpetroleum are the most important primary energy sources inBangladesh. The use of gas and petroleum products in different sectorsis illustrated in Table 1 [6].

The largest energy consuming sectors in Bangladesh are industry,transportation, commercial and residential as shown in Fig. 3, where

total primary energy consumption by different sectors is shown [6].

1.2. Steel industry in Bangladesh

The steel industry in Bangladesh is an established and growing in-dustry; the industry produces for the domestic market as well as exportsabroad. Compared to 2012, the production capacity of Bangladesh'ssteel industry has more than tripled during the financial years 2014–15,and actual production is expected to double by 2022 [25]. The

Fig. 1. Primary energy supply by sources [6].

Fig. 2. Percentage of electricity production by fuels [6].

Table 1Gas and petroleum consumption by sector in Bangladesh [6].

Industry Transport Residence Commercial Agriculture

Gas 69.2% 8.2% 20.7% 1.8% 0.2%Petroleum (Oil) 4.9% 59.8% 9.0% 0.5% 25.8%

Fig. 3. Primary energy consumption by sector [6]Note: primary energy basis, excluding biomass. Electricity: 2867 kcal/kWh(thermal efficiency 30% basis).

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production capacity of the steel industry in Bangladesh grew from ameagre 47,000MT in 1971 to 4.0 million MT in 2015 [7].

The presence of a considerable ship breaking industry helps steelproduction to flourish by supplying raw material for the steel industryin the country [26]. There are around 400 mills that are involved insteel production, with the 20 main mills supplying half of the demand[25]. The sales of the biggest mills in the market are shown in Fig. 4[25].

The industrial sector is by far the biggest energy consuming sector inBangladesh's energy market, and it is expected to grow in the future tosupport the economic growth. The steel industry consumes 276,000TOE of natural gas, 230,000 TOE of electricity and 143,000 TOE of oiland coal annually [6]. These add up to 4.7% of the total energy con-sumption among the industrial sectors in Bangladesh [6].

The main energy sources for energy in the steel industry inBangladesh are electricity, natural gas and high speed diesel (HSD)[27]. Electricity is consumed by induction furnaces and gas is pre-dominantly used in re-rolling mills. Some manufacturers use gas-basedself-generation, which is around 30% cheaper than grid connectedelectricity, while HSD is mainly used to run backup of the utility ser-vices [27]. The steel industry in Bangladesh uses approximately649,000 TOE energy per annum, thus the energy saving potential issubstantial [6]. The best practice steel making and re-rolling industry(induction furnace) in the country has an energy intensity of 212 kgOE/ton, while efficient Japanese mills (arc furnace) have an energy in-tensity of only 130 kgOE/ton. In the case of re-rolling mills, bestpractice production in Bangladesh has an energy intensity of 64 kgOE/ton compared to 50 kgOE/ton in Japanese mills [6].

There has been a governmental initiative to invest in making thesteel industries more energy efficient. According to the governmentalsurvey, the steel-making and re-rolling industry can save up to 156,000TOE per annum by introducing reheating furnaces and replacing in-duction furnaces with arc furnaces [6]. Initially, the governmentalpolicy objective is to bring the whole industry to the best practice levelin terms of energy intensity, to 212 kgOE/ton for crude steel productionand 50 kgOE/ton for re-rolling production [6].

Different technical measures for energy efficiency among steel millsare presented in Table 2.

1.3. Energy management in industry

Energy management is considered a key to facilitating a company'sinternal work for improved energy efficiency as well as one of the mostsuccessful and cost-effective means to increase energy efficiency in anindustry. Definitions of energy management vary in the literature.According to the German Federal Environment Agency, “Energy man-agement comprises the total of planned and executed actions in order to

ensure a minimum of energy input for a predefined performance” [28].In his book “Guide to Energy Management”, B.L. Capehart defines theterm as “The efficient and effective use of energy to maximize profits(minimize costs) and enhance competitive positions” [28]. In thispaper, energy management has been considered as “applying to re-sources as well as to the supply, conversion and utilization of energy’’[28]. Essentially, it involves monitoring, measuring, recording, ana-lyzing, critically examining, controlling and redirecting energy andmaterial flows through systems so that a minimum of energy is con-sumed to achieve worthwhile aims. The term “energy management”includes the planning and operation of production of energy and itsconsumption units. The objectives of energy management are properutilization of resources, climate protection and moreover energy sav-ings. At a time when the effects of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG)emissions on the climate are evident, not only will sustainable energyplay a vital role, improved energy efficiency will also be a very sig-nificant part in changing the GHG scenario of the world. Energy man-agement is closely linked with environmental management, productionmanagement, logistics and other established business functions [2].Energy cost savings can be considered as the main motivator for im-plementing energy management in industry [2].

A successful energy management system facilitates improved energyefficiency and cuts operational expenditure. There are many factorsdirectly related to successful energy management operations. The fac-tors are policy, long-term strategy, energy cost allocation and mon-itoring, top level management support, pay-off criteria and energymanager as shown in Fig. 5 [2] [14], [29].

Allocation of energy cost is very important since it may affect theincentive for a company to work with energy efficiency measures andenergy management [30]. It is necessary to allocate cost to upgradeenergy efficiency techniques. However, the decision for allocating costdepends on the top management. It is also very important to havesupport from top management for a successful in-house energy man-agement program. It has been observed that energy managementpractices are being successfully carried out in companies where topmanagement is supportive enough, as also emphasized in the energymanagement standard [31].

Many countries have implemented energy management systems andobserved a good amount of energy savings being deployed in various

Fig. 4. Gross sales of the prominent steel manufacturers of Bangladesh in bil-lion Taka [25].

Table 2Technical options for energy efficiency [29].

Process Measure

Coke oven Individual pressureregulation

Coke dry quenching

Pelletizing plant Preheating of pellet mix Cooler heat recoveryWaste gas recirculation

Blast furnace (BF) Preheating the injectedcoal

Top gas recycling

Hot oxygen injection Top gas recovery turbineBasic oxygen converter

(BOF)Online process control Post-combustionConverter gas recovery

Electric arc furnace(EAF)

Improved refractories Foam slag controlHigh voltage/frequency(> 300 Hz)

Scrap preheating

Casting Ingot casting Thin slab castingContinuous casting Strip casting

Rolling mill Using exhaust gases forreheating furnace

Heat recovery

Air/fuel preheatingUsing exhaust gases/

excess heatElectricity from coke ovengas

Electricity from heatradiation via TPV

Electricity from blastfurnace gas

District heating

Electricity from BOF gas On-site hot water andsteam supply

Electricity from low gradeheat ORC

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industries. For example, more than 400 Danish industrial companiesimplemented energy management systems by 2001 that make up morethan 60% of total energy consumption in Denmark [18,32]. The energysavings in these companies varied from 24% up to 62% [18]. With thehelp of management and appropriate technology measures, non-energy-intensive companies may save up to 40% of their energy consumptionaccording to one of the earliest works on energy management by Caffal[40].

1.4. Methodology

This research has been carried out as a multiple case study inspiredby work by Yin [20] [21], [20], [21]. The benefit of case study researchis when ‘how’ or ‘why’ questions are asked about a contemporary set ofevents [33]. In the multiple case study research pattern, the researchernormally does not have control over the events [33]. The data collectedin this research was obtained using a questionnaire. The questionnairemainly focuses on energy management practices among steel mills. Thesame questionnaire was used previously for the Swedish iron and steelindustry [14], [34]. The questions were short and easy to read. How-ever, all the questions were asked in a closed format except the energyefficiency potential section. At the beginning of the questionnaire,questions were asked about company profile (e.g. turnover, energyconsumption, workforce). The questionnaire was divided into the fol-lowing sections:

• Barriers to energy efficiency (focuses on technical issues, financialand market barriers, organizational and human factors)

• Drivers for energy efficiency (focuses on internal and external dri-vers)

• Energy efficiency potential (focuses on the efficiency potentiality)

• Options for energy efficiency (focuses on various options for energyefficiency)

• Energy management (focuses on policy, organization, informationsystems, awareness and investment)

• Energy service companies

The questionnaire was sent only to the large steel mills ofBangladesh. The companies with gross sales exceeding 1 billion BDTwere considered for this study. The questionnaire was thus sent by e-mail to nine plant managers in fall 2017. The contact list was collectedfrom the studied companies. The studied companies do not have anyenergy manager/energy engineer. The questionnaire was therefore sentto the production manager or the plant manager. In Bangladesh, the e-

mail culture is not always practiced in official/industrial contexts.Continuous persuasion was therefore necessary to receive the feedbackfrom the respondent. The results of the questionnaire were com-plemented by follow-up telephone interviews with the respondent. Thetotal respondents were seven out of nine, which may be considered agood response rate considering the context of Bangladesh. Respondentswere asked to rank the perceived barriers and drivers from “1: Notimportant at all” to “5: Very important”. The results were then nor-malized.

2. Results

2.1. Barriers to energy efficiency

The results show that the most important barriers to energy effi-ciency were “No available cost-effective technical measures”, “High per-ceived risk due to uncertainty about future energy prices, slow rate of returnand others” and “Poor information quality regarding energy efficiency op-portunities”. These barriers were rated by six out of seven mills thatparticipated, whereby “Uncertainty regarding hidden costs”, “Technicalrisk” and “Other priorities for capital investment” were rated highly by fiveout of seven mills. It was found that two lowest ranked barriers were“Difficulty to cooperate inter-divisionally” and “Limited access to capital”,which were rated by only one respondent as important. Fig. 6 showsdetailed responses from the study.

2.2. Drivers for energy efficiency

“Cost reductions resulting from lowered energy use” was identified asthe most important driver for energy efficiency among the studied steelmills. The other important identified drivers were “long-term energystrategy” and “Threat of rising energy prices”, followed by “Internationalcompetition”. However, “Electricity Certification System (ECS)” was alsoidentified as an important driver, followed by “Commitment from topmanagement”. The lowest ranked drivers were “Taxes (e.g. energy, CO2,Sulphur, NO2)” and “Third party financing”. Fig. 7 presents the differentdrivers for energy efficiency in the steel industry in Bangladesh.

2.3. Energy efficiency potential

The questionnaire's first question was about improved energy effi-ciency with all available energy-efficient technologies. All the re-spondents stated that they could improve energy efficiency by 4%–6%with existing technology that is already available on the market today.The next question was related to improved energy efficiency through

Fig. 5. Criteria for a successful energy management system [29].

Fig. 6. Barriers to energy efficiency, where respondents were asked to rank theperceived barriers from “1: Not important at all” to “5: Very important”.

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energy management measures. According to the respondents, energyuse could be reduced by 6%–8% through energy management mea-sures. The last question was about rating the importance of consideringa system perspective to evaluate options for improved energy effi-ciency. All the respondents provided the highest score in this question,suggesting that considering a system perspective for evaluating optionsfor energy efficiency is of the utmost importance.

2.4. Technological options for energy efficiency

The high energy intensity of the steel mills in Bangladesh becomesapparent when the technological options for energy efficiency wereassessed with the questionnaire. Most of the participants in this studydid not have any efficiency improving technologies implemented intheir production process. Also, the participants were less forthcomingwhen answering the technological options and their planned measuresfor improving efficiency in future.

None of the participants in this study currently have energy effi-ciency measures listed in the questionnaire in the coke oven, pelletizingplant, blast furnace (BF), BOF or EAF processes. Also, they did not useexhaust gases for producing electricity and/or heat. Only three out ofthe seven participants use continuous casting in the casting process.

2.5. Energy management

Energy management measures were calculated within five cate-gories – policy, organization, information systems, awareness and in-vestment – following the self-assessment matrix for energy managementdevised by the UK's Carbon Trust [35]. The five categories of the matrixhave been complemented by adding other success factor for energymanagement practices [2], [14]. The soundness of the energy man-agement measures was calculated by the weighted sum of the partici-pants' answers to the different points of the survey questions. Theweighting factors for different sub-categories of energy managementmeasures were taken from the existing scientific literature for similarindustry [14], [29].

As seen in Fig. 8, the steel mills have a large potential for im-provements in every category of the matrix. The largest factor for im-provement was “Awareness” within the organization of energy man-agement. Employees at all levels should be educated about energymanagement practices and its potential to improve production andprofitability. The companies should also consider energy efficiency in-vestment, implement energy management policies and incorporate anenergy manager into the management structure.

2.6. Energy service companies

Energy service companies (ESCOs) have been identified in researchand different policymaker organizations as a vital part of increasingenergy efficiency and sustainable development [23–25]. In this study, itwas found that this concept still seems novel to the steel industry ofBangladesh. The companies tend to use internal expertise only and theyare not familiar with the concept of ESCOs. The market for ESCOs forthe country's steel industry is non-existent at this moment. In this study,none of the participants used ESCOs for energy efficiency and man-agement purposes.

Barriers to consulting ESCOs were investigated in the study. Theparticipants were asked to rate barriers from low (1) to high (5).According to this study, “lack of information about ESCO concept” isthe most prominent barrier to consulting ESCOs, followed by “lack ofactors in the market” and “absence of standardized procedure in theindustry”. The cumulative responses of the companies on differentbarriers are shown in Fig. 9.

3. Discussion

The result shows that the highest perceived barriers were found tobe “No available cost-effective technical measures”, “High perceived risk dueto uncertainty about future energy prices”, “Slow rate of return and others”and “Poor information quality regarding energy efficiency opportunities”.Relating our findings to the Swedish steel industry located in a devel-oped country [14], it may be seen that Swedish mills perceive differentbarriers for improved energy efficiency, with “technical risks” and “lack

Fig. 7. Drivers for energy efficiency, where respondents were asked to rank theperceived drivers from “1: Not important at all” to “5: Very important”.

Fig. 8. Assessment of energy management practices of steel mills inBangladesh.

Fig. 9. Barriers to consulting ESCOs, where respondents were asked to rank theperceived drivers from “1: Not important at all” to “5: Very important”.

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of technical competence” being the most important barriers in Swedishsteel firms [14]. Relating our findings to a similar study of Ghanaianindustry, i.e. a developing country, however not primarily studying thesteel industry, it was found that the most significant barriers were ofeconomic origin such as “lack of budget funding”, “access to capital”and “other priorities for capital investment” [15]. Another study of 65foundries across Europe revealed “Lack of budget funding”, “Other prio-rities for capital investments”, “Department or workers not accountable forenergy costs” and “Lack of time or other priorities” as leading barriers toenergy efficiency and efficiency practices [16].

The results shows that the highest perceived drivers in this studywere found to be “Cost reductions resulting from lowered energy use”followed by “Long-term energy strategy” and “Threat of rising energyprices”, and fourthly, “International competition”. Relating our findings tothose of previous similar studies regarding steel industries [14] [17],[15], it was evident that the drivers for energy efficiency are quite si-milar in different countries. In all these cases, the drivers such as “Costreduction resulting from lowered energy use”, “Long-term energy strategy”and “Threat of rising energy prices” are found to be among the highestperceived drivers [14] [17], [15]. One exception however may be seen,and that regards a person with real ambition. While high-ranked amongSwedish mills, it is a mid-ranked driver among Bangladesh's steel mills.The reasons for this may be cultural, i.e. Swedish mill staff may face ahigher degree of freedom in their profession while staff at Bangladesh'smills may face stricter working conditions, and further investigationsare called for in order to fully understand these differences.

As regards potential for cost-effective energy efficiency improve-ments, it was found that the potential for improved energy efficiencywith existing technology was perceived to be 4%–6%, while the po-tential through energy management measures was perceived to be6%–8%. Similar results to these figures were presented by Ref. [14]emanating from the Swedish steel industry.

In the relationship of SEC (Specific Energy Consumption) betweenSweden and Bangladesh, it may be noted that a degree of social con-struction, as stated by a previous study, may be seen [31]. From a policyperspective, it could be emphasized that information and even educa-tional actions to bring in ideas from other countries could prove a veryeffective policy for improved energy efficiency. If the energy manage-ment matrix of Bangladesh's steel industry is compared to its Swedishcounterpart, Swedish steel industries outperform Bangladesh's steelindustry significantly in all aspects. It has been found from this studythat there is a substantial lack of awareness, policy and investment inrelation to energy management practices in the industry in Bangladeshcompared to Swedish steel mills [14]. For example, only 5% of theparticipating companies in this study had some sort of awareness oftraining for its employees compared to 39% among the Swedish mills[14]. In a similar research study of Ghana's biggest industrial park, itwas found that awareness among top managers among the industrialcompanies was generally low [15]. Moreover, if technological optionsfor energy efficiency in steel industry are considered, the contrast be-tween different countries is stark. Only three out of the seven partici-pants in this study use continuous casting in the casting process, andpresently use exhaust gases for reheating furnace and air/fuel pre-heating in rerolling mills. Other advanced technological measures arenot installed in production facilities, but in Swedish industry some ofthe manufacturers have installed advanced technical measures in var-ious stages/types of production [29]. For example, one Swedish man-ufacturer LKAB's four plants are already the first, third and fourth mostefficient plants from a global perspective in energy recovery accordingto their internal benchmark study [29,37].

4. Conclusions

The aim of this paper was to study energy management and energyefficiency among large iron and steel mills in the country ofBangladesh. Results indicate a semi-high potential for improved energy

efficiency via technology as well as via energy management. Resultsfrom this study regarding barriers show that a number of strong barriersare present. Also, barriers among the studied steel mills differ fromthose presented in a similar study among Swedish mills. One conclusionfrom this study may therefore be that it seems to be of the utmostimportance for both steel mill managers and public policy decision-makers to undertake a study of barriers prior to new policy interven-tions as well as in-house energy management initiatives. The sameconclusion, however, may not be fully drawn as regards drivers. Manyof the perceived drivers from this study are similar to those identified inprevious studies, i.e. cost reductions and a long-term energy strategyare ranked highly.

The primary model for understanding improved energy efficiency inindustry, as also applied in this paper, is that there is a certain degree ofcost-effective energy efficiency measures that give rise to a potential forimproved energy efficiency, the so-called energy efficiency gap, i.e. adifference between the current level of energy efficiency improvementsand what could be implemented with available technologies that areperceived as cost-effective by the companies [39,36]. The energy effi-ciency gap is then explained by the existence of a number of barriers toenergy efficiency. Later research has started to emphasize the way inwhich technology is used or operated. The so-called extended energyefficiency gap has been defined [30,38]. When asking the respondentsin this study about the potential for having a wider systems perspective,all respondents affirmed that this is of the utmost importance. Thus,with in respect of the applied model, it seems that this model for un-derstanding energy efficiency may be partly in need of development,where types of energy efficiency measures other than solely technologymeasures would also be included. Such a widened system boundary hasbeen shown to give rise to a larger degree of potential than if solelystand-alone technologies are regarded.

The preliminary study is novel as no previous study so far has beenpublished revolving around this theme. Despite its novel character, theauthors would like to draw attention to the fact that results emanatefrom only seven mills, and the results must thus be analyzed in thiscontext. On the contrary, the low number of large mills does not enablea study to be conducted using for example a survey. The choice of re-search design applying multiple case study methodology using a ques-tionnaire and interviews may thus seem to be well motivated. Even so,there is a potential risk of participation bias from the respondents whenproviding answers to the questionnaire and the interviews, which needsto be considered when reading and assessing the paper's findings.Further, if the respondents are lacking information about energy effi-ciency and energy management, it might per se be difficult for them toprovide a fully correct statement of barriers and drivers, etc., includedin the questionnaire.

A general outcome of our study is that the method for studyingbarriers, drivers, and energy management has also been applied in anAsian developing country context. So far, it has only been applied inone other developing country, Ghana. We suggest that further researchbe undertaken using the applied method in other developing countriesand sectors as well.

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