A new approach to the efficiency concept in South African industry

Abstract

This millennium is marked by a new trend: efficien-cy. In the actual economical environment, business sustainability requires high-efficiency technological processes. The efficiency concept has to be present at all levels of industrial activities. However, as com-mon practice, the efficiency concept is still regarded equivalent to ‘energy efficiency’ as mentioned in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 1996), and specifically re-defined by the Federal Energy Management Plan (Department of Energy Federal Register 1994. By analysing specific industrial processes, the authors have defined a global concept of efficiency presenting results of sound research in this field, with reference to electric motors and drives. Typical examples supporting the theoretical background reveal general impacts on the South African econo-my by implementing this new concept: • Technical and economical performance improvement and competitiveness of South African companies to international standards; • Defusing an incipient energy crisis in the sector; • Improving environmental conditions (less ema-nations of carbon dioxide at the power plants); and • Creating new job opportunities in the sector. The global concept of efficiency proposed in this paper can be further developed in assessing effi-ciency of various processes, thus improving compa-nies’ corporate energy policy.