Energy management practices, barriers, and drivers in Bangladesh: An exploratory insight from pulp and paper industry

Industrial energy management is critical to ensuring efficient energy usage, market viability, and greenhouse gas emission reductions. In this study, the aim is to investigate energy management practices in paper and pulp in-dustries (PPI) of Bangladesh. The study identifies several barriers to adopt energy management practices; "Lack of governmental attention", "Inadequate staff awareness" and "limited access to capital" are identified as the major constraints. In addition, HVAC systems and compressed air systems present higher barriers compared to electrical motor and pump systems while looking at the barriers by technology areas. On the other hand, "Owner's demand", "Commitment from the top management" and "Pressure from the customers and different non-Governmental organization" are found to be the dominant drivers of energy management in the studied PPI. Energy management practices can enhance the energy efficiency approximately by 4-5 % according to the study. Furthermore, this study reveals that the majority of PPIs are unaware of the energy service companies (ESCO) with the lack of a standardized system for energy audit, as well as a lack of trust and information, appear-ing to be the obstacles behind this.(c) 2022 International Energy Initiative. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.