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Exploring energy management in the Swedish pulp and paper industry

Panel: Panel 5. Energy efficiency in industry

Authors:
Patrik Thollander, Department of Management and Engineering, Division of Energy Systems, Linköping University, Sweden
Mikael Ottosson, Department of Technology and Social Change, Linköping University, Sweden

Abstract

The Swedish pulp- and paper industry is a considerable user of energy, accounting for about 50 percent of the Swedish industrial energy use and 2 percent of the EU-25 industrial energy use. Its high energy use makes this industry particularly important in terms of energy efficiency. Previous research has emphasised the need for companies' to have well functioning energy management practices in order to increase energy efficiency. This paper describes and analyses energy management practices in the Swedish pulp and paper industry. A questionnaire was sent out to the person in charge of the energy issue at all Swedish mills and 40 replies were received, a response frequency of 68 percent. The results show that the energy issue has been given increasingly higher priority over the past 10 years. However, in spite of this, overall results from the questionnaire show that there is still potential for improving energy management in the studied industry. More than 20 percent of the studied mills lack a long-term energy strategy, and less than half of the studied mills have an energy strategy covering at least five years. These results indicate that the implementation of a long-term energy strategy in this energy intensive industry, in combination with other means, could be of utmost importance for increasing energy efficiency. In conclusion, based on the research results presented in this paper, a different energy policy design for the industry seems to be needed, which could be very fruitful if it focuses on establishing more efficient energy management practices and includes all energy carriers. Moreover, the fact that more than 20 percent of the studied mills lack a long-term energy strategy and the fact that the Swedish EMS standard does not require such a strategy to be formulated indicates the need for further studies regarding a plausible inclusion of a long-term energy strategy in the EMS standard.

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