A practical approach for Energy Management, in the Agro-food sector industry in Algeria

Energy management (EnM) is a key success factor for the sustainability of an industrial unit. In the specialized literature, there are several studies that have dealt with different energy saving measures and energy performance. This study proposes an electrical energy management approach in the agro-food sector in Algeria, more specifically yogurt manufacturing. This approach is a procedure based on the load curve, and some data related to production and manufacturing equipment, serving as ingredients in the calculation and evaluation of the financial and energy performance of the production process. To do this, two performance indicators are iteratively calculated and monitored. The first performance indicator is SECC, it represents the cost of specific energy consumption (DZD/1), the second performance indicator called SEC, which is the specific energy consumption (kWh/1), for the present case the liter of yogurt. According to the findings of this paper, improvements in financial and energy performance indicators have been achieved thanks to the proposed procedure, and an annual financial gain of approximately 6.5 million DZD, or 5% for the benefit of the yogurt production plant, which no doubt sees its competitive position on the local market strengthened.