Energy efficiency improvement in the cement industry through energy management

The technology of energy management called "Sistema de Gestión Integral de la Energía, SGIE” was proposed in Colombia in 2007 as a result of a research project funded by the Colombian government. The SGIE technology consists of statistical and monitoring tools, energy efficiency indicators and conforms to the requirements of the Standard ISO 50001. This technology allows the measurement of energy efficiency on industrial processes. Since 2007, the SGIE technology has been used in diverse industrial sectors and between the years 2009 and 2010, it was applied to the cement production industry. This paper presents the results of a pilot application of the SGIE technology in a cement plant with a wet process, in order to improve its energy efficiency. The results have shown a reduction of 4.6% of the electric energy consumption in this plant; achieved without investing in new equipment, but with only the innovation of the processes through applying the SGIE technologies to the energy management of the plant processes. The implementation of the SGIE has contributed to the adoption of a culture of energy efficient management and continuous improvement of the processes with impact on productivity and competitiveness of the company.