4.3. Energy conservationElectricity

4.3. Energy conservation
Electricity cost contributes to the second largest portion of the
starch-processing plants’ expenditure. Companies can increase
the efficiency of their electricity consumption and reduce the
electricity cost using several methods. Since starch production
relies on many different machines that employ motors, installation
of motor load control (MLC) can help to increase the
motor efficiency while running. Four of the studied plants installing
MLC at a dehydration machine and grinding machine can
reduce the electricity cost by approximately 58,000–290,000
baht/year as shown in Table 4. In addition to installation of MLC,
the use of fluorescent lighting in plants can provide a more efficient
use of electricity than incandescent light bulbs at an
equivalent brightness. One of the companies that changed its
lighting system from 80 sets of incandescent light bulbs to
2 36W fluorescent lamps can save the electricity cost up to
181,000 baht/year with a payback period of a year. Moreover, two
of the studied companies have used the exhaust air released from
the drier stacks to preheating the fresh air that is delivered into
the hot air generator for the drying unit. This approach helps to
reduce energy for generating hot air.