Benchmarking energy consumption and identifying opportunities for conservation - It pays to take an active long-term approach, author points out

Ensuring marker acceptance of pulp and paper products from an environmental view-point will be the main driver for energy conservation in the short te rm, though the probability of higher sustained oil prices in thr longer ter m will likely increase this thrust for competitiveness reasons. Energy audi ts and benchmarking against new and similar mills are two of the key elemen ts in a systematic approach to identifying and implementing energy conserva tion projects in existing mills.