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.