Dear @Mahmoud, I do not have exact data on Serbian Energy Intensity! "Efficiency improvements in processes and equipment and other explanatory factors can contribute to observed changes in energy intensity. Within the category "other explanatory factors" we can identify two separate effects: structural changes and behavioral factors, which are further discussed in item 2) below."- article in 1st link.

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/analysis/eii_efficiency_intensity.html

http://www.aers.rs/Index.asp?l=2

You can look at the measures adopted in directives 2012/27 and 2010/31. You can find there broad range of administrative tools that should be implemented by member states like energy efficiency in buildings, efficiency audits, smart metering, DSM etc. The EU adopted also 20% target in energy efficiency for 2020. The problem is that the target is not binding and is ignored by some member states. Maybe adoption binding targets + specific measures can be an answer? Of course if there is a perspective to develop internal energy efficiency market(s) in Iran as a neccessary precondition to deliver energy efficiency services and as a surplus for your economy. The point is that every measure you adopt should fit the shape of the industry in your country. I would start from audits to see where you can get simple efficiency gains and then start to deploy more sophisticated measures.  

I guess minimization of energy waste is essential. This will require a complex process of infrastructural upgradation, public awareness. Adoption of new technologies like LEDs for lightining. Privatization in some countries has led to efficiency improvement. Certainly Iran has the potential to greatly optimize its energy efficiency.

Dear All,

Thank you for your comments/ suggestions (necessary measures needed) on this important issue. I should have mentioned, Iran’s energy subsidies are one of the highest in the world. Accordingly, it has had counterproductive consequences on energy demand. It ranges between 0.5 to 12 percent of GDP depending on different calculation method.

I already indicated at other places that people do not sleep enough.... And what about the mismatch between the 'working window' and the 'night window requiring artificial light'.....  Many people like night life....

Dear Marcel , Even if we put the people at rest! (sleep), the fact is "Iran energy demand expands by 87.7%  between 2005 and 2030, an average rate of increase of 2.6% per year."  according to different scenarios.

Good night.

P.S.: Right now I am going to follow your advise (It is 12 p.m. in here!). To be continued ... (hopefully  tomorrow).

Is EI the proper metric? A dense population with a mature industry and established infrastructure will have a lower EI. Efficiency measures by individuals will have less effect than efficiency in industry. A dense population can take advantage of economy of scale.

Economy of scale can work both ways. It may be more efficient to locate energy production near usage locations with the production scaled to the need. Practices such as co-generation and use of waste heat can improve efficiency. Local planning instead of central planning can lead to custom production that fits local needs.

Dear Joseph Thank you for joining the discussion. If we use other measures still energy demand is higher than rest of the world. Your points on decentralizing and making use of CHP (co-generation) are good practices and should be taken into account. Although Iran does not have any comprehensive plan for energy, it has embarked some short run and medium run plans for energy production and consumption in different sectors.

Agree with Kamal!

How about comprehensive action plan focused on energy efficiency?  

P.S. Sleeping in the night is counterproductive. One who cares about environment & energy efficiency should sleep during peak demand hours :-)  

Dear Mariusz, Thank you for your comment.

P.S.: If we sleep during the peak demand hours  then who is going to make a comprehensive action plan focused on energy efficiency:-)

If you can transform renewable energies (as solar, wind or energy from the tides) in other forms of energy as through the pumping of water for large reservoirs at an upper level, for example, you can use more efficiently the renewable energies according to your needs; that is, the power required in each instant of time. It should be remembered that the power required, according to the consumption requirements in each instant of time, is very important for the energetic efficiency. (I heard from an expert, and it makes sense, that electric energy does not exist. The electric current is just transportation with conversion of other energies between the inlet and outlet).

Dear Antonio. Thank you for your expert opinion. One assumption that can meet the energy demand for near future (e.g., year 2030) would be to combine high renewable energy and high efficiency (energy intensity factors) scenarios together.

Dear Mahmoud,

Thinking globally you can always hire experts from a different time zone and have a rest :-)

Best regards,

Mariusz

Thanks for your compliments Mahmood and Mariuz that I do not deserve. I have to say that I am not an expert in the areas that you are speaking about. There are some analogies between water flow and electric current, but also some distinctive differences. According to the words of Mahmood, more than a problem of energy, it looks that Iran has an Industrial problem?

One last thing that comes to my mind is education. Two days ago I was asked to give an opinion on opening a coruse at one of Polish universities titled "Energy Efficiency". My opinion was positive regarding the range of problems connected with energy efficiency. I know that Mahmoud knows what are solutions of the problem, but I would add also education to our recommendations.

Dear Prof. Omid,

First, thanks for your constructive and comprehensive question.

Energy intensity is one part of a comprehensive system of the environmental impact of production systems and studying on EI and making recommendations about it depends on the type of production system (PS). As a whole, management decisions and technological changes affect EI. Rising GDP lead to a decrease of the EI, But studies have shown that this effect is reduced with increasing GDP, because of higher inputs to the PS. It is recommended to determine the energy intensity by including the whole production line operations in the energy auditing calculations, even if some process sections have only a low share of the energy intensity.

Dear António, Sefeedpari  Mariusz: and All,

Thank you for interesting answers and complements. In your possible suggestions and hints from now on, please take into account energy-related CO2 emissions, too. That is to say, to meet primary energy demand, we must  be careful  on steady increase in emissions at the same time. Accordingly, in order to avoid  a rapid and irreversible climate change, we need a major De-Carbonization of the world’s energy system, too.

My pleasure and good luck!

I fully agree with the view expressed by dear Paria.

Conservation and energy efficiency are crucial components of a national energy plan. Energy efficiency is the ability to use less energy to produce the same amount of useful work or services. Conservation is closely related and is simply using less energy. Improved energy efficiency and conservation reduces energy consump-

tion and energy costs, while maintaining equivalent service in our homes, offices, factories, and automobiles.

http://www.wtrg.com/EnergyReport/National-Energy-Policy.pdf

Mahmoud

While conservation, efficiency, and renewables (as recommended throughout this conversation) may help address your issues, you really need to know what the main culprit is so your efforts can be strategic.. So we really need to get at the issue. Several questions arise which I haven’t really seen addressed in this conversation yet…

Have you completed a bottom-up assessment of what is leading to the high energy intensity? Need to look at all sectors… every type of electricity generation (coal, CC's, CT's, etc.) , direct industrial coal use. What fraction of this is Transportation? Industrial? Buildings?

Is Energy Intensity (EI) high because primary energy (PE) consumption is off the charts, or because GDP is low. Have you looked at historical plots of both PE and GDP, and can you comment on their trajectories (and do you trust the source and methods for the calculation of both)? What about EI trends?

Is the real issue high demand or high losses? Are losses dominated by conversion (e.g. coal-fired electricity generation) or distribution (e.g. electricity transmission losses)? Actually, It would be good to look at trends of all expanded KAYA parameters: CO2 = P * GDP/P * FE/GDP * PE/FE * C02/PE (population * affluence * final energy intensity * energy conversion losses * carbon intensity of primary energy).

I'm sure you've already crunched these numbers, but they would be constructive in this conversation.

Challenging issue, thanks for posting.

-Jordan

Use of energy efficient home appliances at domestic level and manufacturing plants at industrial level, maintaining their maximum efficiency in accordance with LEED standards and reduction of the energy losses in production and distribution system are the ways to reduce energy intensity. Consumer awareness and sensitization on the importance of energy conservation and sensible use also holds immense significance in energy saving. After all Saving energy is as important as Producing energy .

Dear @Jordan thank you for participation  on this ongoing discussion.  You raised many new questions that need experts to come up with answers or solutions. With regard to historical plots of both PE and GDP, EI, ... i am supplying some charts here.

N.B. Plz note, the PE supply and consumption chart of Iran is for the period of 1974 till 2008, whereas EI chart is based on constant 1997 prices in Iran an for time span of 1974 to 2005. 

Good point! Average simple energy savings from AMI in a few projects that I know are estimated on 2 - 4% (households). In one of Polish projects the prognosis raises to 15% in case of dynamic tariffs deployment. Two years ago we made an interesting project from the World Bank grant regarding HAN and smart grids. I can check if there is an English version of technical and economic report if anybody is interested, although I had an impression that the problem described by Mahmoud concerns rather industry than households... Anyway, energy savings in households are of course also important if we discuss energy efficiency.       

Okay. Let’s try to discuss a basic idea. From what I learned with Mahmood (“better ask than get lost in the way”), Iran is a very rich country in energy and the price of energy is very cheap, particularly when compared with EU, for example. Here can be an important reason for so low energetic efficiency, particularly in the Industrial sector. I feel that probably this aspect can be much more developed.  

Dear Antonio,  I think my original question (with numbers and chart) was quite clear already. Anyway, thank you for explaining my question and way.  As a wiseman said once "What we hope ever to do with ease we must learn first to do with diligence."

Dear Eraldo, Thank you for your participation in this topic. You nicely explained the complexity of the EI issue.  What alternative metric is more appropriate to study the situation? and what would you suggest  (practical measures or solutions) for reducing energy intensity?

As Eraldo Banovac said energy use is a complex issue. Many industries in a country have special relationships developed to promote particular interests.Often these relationships had a particular purpose at a particular time. The relationships may be outdated and are in need of modification, but have a momentum that is difficult to change. In the USA, there was a push to centralize electrical production for purposes of standardization and local control. Laws were passed to prevent industries from producing their own electricity. The result was a well-regulated electricity system at the cost of efficiency when industries produced there own.

There are cases were industries were recruited to a location by promising subsidized energy. While most of these subsidies proved too costly and were eventually removed, the lack of efficiency because of inexpensive energy and special relationships still exist.

There are many of these problems in all energy systems. One should determine if efficiency is compromised because of outdated, but institutionalized practices. 

Asking the populace to be voluntarily more efficient usually does not gain a good deal. Most consumers are reasonably efficient as they must pay the electric bill on a monthly basis (sometimes a daily prepay.) Acquiring energy efficient appliances and making homes more efficient often leads to using the same amount of electricity. The money saved for energy is spent for more energy using devices.

Mahmoud, Thanks for responding so quickly with PE, FE, and EI charts!

Your PE/FE ratio is more than 2:1, so you are losing more than half of your energy before delivering it to the end user. However, even if you could instantly deliver lossless energy, Iran would still be at about 450, or 2.3 times the global average (according to your charts).

Interesting that PE and FE are both growing at a steady clip, but EI flattens in recent years. Thus, indicating that GDP is growing much faster now than before. This helps us understand the dynamics of Iran’s EI (I assume your EI is PE/GDP).

You have two problems to address if you want to significantly reduce Iran’s energy intensity.

1) Energy conversion and distribution losses

2) Final energy demand

Several researchers on this thread have already pointed out the importance of addressing both of these, but now we have some idea of the extent of each. To be strategic about addressing both, you will need to dig into your data to determine what the largest offenders are.

Where are the greatest energy conversion losses, and in which sector or industry? As others have stated, adding more renewables to the mix improve the conversion losses and reduce PE required to meet the FE, but won’t address the FE. Joseph's suggestions about evaluating outdated and decentralized generation can potentially address both.

As pointed out by Antonio, energy is cheap in Iran. Consumers may (or may not) respond to prices. But what end-use services have the highest fractions of demand in Iran? Space heating, cooling, water heating, refrigeration, etc.. If there is one or two that stand out, perhaps efficiency standards should be implemented (or improved).

Of course, we aren’t going to solve your problem directly, but clearly there are lots of good suggestions from this thread.

Jordan

Dear @Jordan T Wilkerson, Thank you for very good analysis of the situation and explanation of charts trends and their consequences. As I mentioned before we have 4.6 times higher EI in industry sector. Besides losses in residential and official buildings and other sectors too. Being one of the biggest oil producers in the world left us less to think of optimization and proper use of energy in the past. So our infrastructures need proper modification and more improvement. I am interested to learn more on proper actions and measures to deal with such issues. Thank you again for very good and comprehensive discussion. Do you know of any report or document which can give more details dealing with the issue.

Best regards,

Mahmoud

Perhaps I missed something, but why energy is used for across countries? E.g. Mobility, heat production, food production,  water production, etc....

Dear Marcel  Thank you for joining the discussion. There are many reason for doing that. Maybe experts can correct me. As I know, a limitation of electric power is that electrical energy cannot be stored, and therefore must be generated as needed. Accordingly, transformers are used to step-up voltage from generators to high-voltage transmission lines, and then to step-down voltage to local distribution circuits or industrial customers. Transmission efficiency is greatly improved by devices that increase the voltage, (and thereby proportionately reduce the current) in the line conductors, thus allowing power to be transmitted with acceptable losses. The reduced current flowing through the line reduces the heating losses in the conductors. According to Joule's Law, energy losses are directly proportional to the square of the current. Thus, reducing the current by a factor of two will lower the energy lost to conductor resistance by a factor of four for any given size of conductor.

Now, The price of electric power station capacity is high, and electric demand is variable, so it is often cheaper to import some portion of the needed power than to generate it locally. Because loads are often regionally correlated, electric power often comes from distant sources. Because of the economic benefits of load sharing between regions, wide area transmission grids now span countries and even continents. Therefore, by allowing multiple generating plants to be interconnected over a wide area, electricity production cost is reduced. Reliability is improved and capital investment cost is reduced, since stand-by generating capacity could be shared over many more customers and a wider geographic area. 

Thanks for explaining my answer, dear Mahmood. With respect to Education, as probably all of you know (or should know), the error is always present and comes from the human condition. For me the best answer so far was given by Kamal (unfortunately I only can give one up vote for some answers; I never down voted so far, particularly because it is anonymous, but I was never afraid of ignorance). I have my Invoice of electricity near me (I hope that the Invoice is not wrong!!!). The mix sources for 2013 were: Wind: 49.6%; Hydraulic: 13.9%; Fossil co-generation: 11.8%; Others Renewable 9.6%; Coal: 8.2% … and others: 6.9% (fortunately it makes 100 %!!!). The current price of energy (approximately 0.15 Euros/kWh for a simple tariff, and is necessary to add taxes) is more than ten times higher than the price of Energy in Iran. Some people have not money for pay the energy in my country. I took another glance to the USA report found by Krishnan. See, for example, the mix for 2000!!! (Less than 10% of energy comes from renewable and Hydraulic toguether). Don’t you all think that the scientific community should be more worried with the problems of the poor than with some ways of life of the rich?

http://www.edpsu.pt/pt/particulares/tarifasehorarios/BTN/Pages/TarifasBTNate20.7kVA.aspx

Dear António. In my country the billing is exponentially proportional to consumption. Therefore, the rich one pay heavy and poor one get discount or zero bill (if they consume below certain level)

Energy intensity is a measure of the energy efficiency of a nation's economy. It is calculated as units of energy per unit of GDP.Many factors influence an economy's overall energy intensity. It may reflect requirements for general standards of living and weather conditions in an economy. It is not atypical for particularly cold or hot climates to require greater energy consumption in homes and workplaces for heating (furnaces, or electric heaters) or cooling (air conditioning, fans, refrigeration). A country with an advanced standard of living is more likely to have a wider prevalence of such consumer goods and thereby be impacted in its energy intensity than one with a lower standard of living.

Energy efficiency of appliances and buildings (through use of building materials and methods, such as insulation), fuel economy of vehicles, vehicular distances travelled (frequency of travel or larger geographical distances), better methods and patterns of transportation, capacities and utility of mass transit, energy rationing or conservation efforts, 'off-grid' energy sources, and stochastic economic shocks such as disruptions of energy due to natural disasters, wars, massive power outages, unexpected new sources, efficient uses of energy or energy subsidies may all impact overall energy intensity of a nation.

Thus, a nation that is highly economically productive, with mild and temperate weather, demographic patterns of work places close to home, and uses fuel efficient vehicles, supports carpools, mass transportation or walks or rides bicycles, will have a far lower energy intensity than a nation that is economically unproductive, with extreme weather conditions requiring heating or cooling, long commutes, and extensive use of generally poor fuel economy vehicles. 

Dear Maddali Thank you for your comments on factors that may have impact on EI. Currently, the “Big5” energy intensive industries of Iran are refineries, petrochemical plants, iron & steel, cement and brick industries. There are many factors, barriers and opportunities exists! Here I outline main barriers that exist in Iran for improving energy efficiency::

1- Low energy prices result in infeasible payback for energy efficiency investments.

2- Industrial facilities do not have sufficient fund to invest in energy efficiency enhancements, bank loans are hardly available and interest rates are prohibitively high.

3- Unavailability of domestic suppliers of the required energy efficiency technologies.

Energy loss, energy saving devices should be must. This itself will be very effective in improving Energy utilization.

Dear Saif, Thank you for your suggestion. Definitely, by installing smart meters we see how to save money and monitor our energy consumption. Although they can make energy use more visible, but it is not clear if technology alone will be enough to reduce energy consumption

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2013/jun/28/smart-meters-homeowners-save-energy

Dear Mahmoud I share your point of view. In my opinion it's only one of the pieces of energy efficiency puzzles. If you deploy smart meters, or make your grid generally more visible you can get some benefits in terms of reducing non-technical energy losses or lower energy consumption (esp. if you persuade people that they should consume less energy during peak hours). Those benefits depend among others on the scale of the deployment of AMI etc. Do you plan such a deployment in Iran? If the answer is yes: what kind of benefits and goals do you expect to achieve? How about merging AMI with microgeneration?      

India has not apportioned the 20–25 percent energy intensity reduction target to specific missions, at least two of these missions (the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission and the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency) are expected to contribute to meeting this goal.

Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) (MoP, GoI)

The primary objectives of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency are to improve energy efficiency and reduce the energy intensity of the Indian economy by developing policies that focus on self-regulation and market principles for all sectors of the economy (for example, the Perform, Achieve, and Trade [PAT] scheme). The BEE is also empowered to establish a compliance mechanism to measure, monitor, and verify energy efficiency in individual sectors.

A substantial and continuous decline in India’s energy intensity of GDP and CO2 intensity of GDP, assume energy efficiency improvement in lin. India already has an established network of experts to prepare the national communications and the Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA) to prepare GHG inventories. India does not have a standardized GHG inventory system, however. The most current projections of India’s GHG emissions were released by the government of India’s Planning Commission in the Interim Report of the Expert Group on Low Carbon Strategies for Inclusive Growth (Planning Commission, 2011a).

http://www.wri.org/sites/default/files/wri_workingpaper_india_final.pdf

Dear @K. Sudhakar thank you for your suggestion. How reducing import improve EI. By the way Iran is a big energy producer and she does not import oil, NG, etc.

Dear @Mariusz Swora. Sorry for late response.As far as I know we dont have Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) here yet. So merging AMI with microgeneration is not initiated neither.

Thanks, Mahmoud, for dropping such a topic to discuss.

Just to answer your question: I feel like the Moroccan authorities (where I live) do not  seem to take care actively of energy intensity, in itself.

Let me remind few things.

Energy intensity is the ratio of energy consumed to generate a given economic value added. For a given economic activity, reducing energy intensity with time can either come from:

- reducing the numerator (the case of OECD countries),

- increasing the denominator (the case of China),

Usually, secondary and primary sectors have higher energy intensity. That is why few countries encourage moving towards more services which have a better energy efficiency (reverse of energy intensity EI).

Usually, it is not valid to compare :

- countries EI, without

    * using any common ppp currency unit ($ or any other),

     * looking at its climate, geography and detailed composition,

- sector EI from a country to another without looking at its constitution.

Would somebody be interested in reviewing a paper on "Energy for Morocco 2030" based on energy intensities evolution ?

All the best,

Dear Mahmoud, thank you for your answer. Maybe you could prepare a feasibility study of deployment of AMI to check how much you can get in terms of energy efficiency?

Dear @Amin Bennouna, Thank you for your encouraging comments as well as very good and interesting explanation on EI and its reduction strategy. It was very informative. I like to have a copy of the paper "Energy for Morocco 2030". Thank you again for insightful detail on the problem.

You should look at the energy mix: how your country consumes energy and what kind of energy it uses. For instance, the energy conversion efficiency is not the same for fossil fuels than for hydropower. The higher such a efficiency the lower the EI indicator (assuming the same GDP basis).

Dear Juan Thank you for your contribution. To answer to your question I would like to explain the energy mix situation in Iran. Energy mix in Iran consist of five main resources which are crude oil, natural gas (NG), coal, hydropower and renewable energy (RE). But Iranian energy sector still largely depends on the crude oil and NG. Iran has also developed her nuclear technology and will be using it as energy sources in the near future.

Some estimates: Iran has the 2nd largest NG reserves (about 29 trillion cubic meter ) in the world, and 4th largest oil producer of the world. The total capacity of installed hydropower stations (42 active hydro power stations) in Iran is 7672.5 MW. Yet, the contribution of RE in power generation in Iran is only around 1%!

Iran has abundant amount of RE (Wind, solar, geothermal and biomass). The country has many windy areas, at least 2800 hr/yr sunshine hours, at least 31,000 km2 area suitable for utilizing geothermal energy (being located on the geothermal belt), and biomass (10.5% under forest and 52.3% under pasture and agricultural), hence it has high potential for utilizing these RE resources and these can be major contributors of RE in the country. Iran is trying hard to increase the contribution of RE supply in recent years.

The following link has some interesting information with respect to the Energy Mix in several countries:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation

Even if a lot of countries are missing, the reference proposed by Antonio is very interesting because it gives historic numbers down to 1980 but it deals essentially with the segmentation of primary sources to generate electricity.

I must confess, that apart from the total electricity generated, I fail understanding how the segmentation is useful for answering Mahmoud's question related to energy intensity matters.

On top of this, to my knowledge, energy intensity should not be calculated with the generated electricity but the final electric energy either as the net electricity injected in the grid (part of the former generated one) or, when possible, the electricity distributed at the grid terminations to customers (part of the former injected net electricity). This last is, in fact, the one with which the customers generate the country income.

Between generated and net injected electricity, there are injection losses.

Between net injected and distributed electricity, there are grid losses.

Dear all:  With the last link, I was trying to complement the answer of Mahmood with information that I think could be useful. I am not the author of that information relative to 2006, 2008 and 2013.

With respect to the price of energy, it should be noted that the final consumers also pay the power of the contract (in kVA). If a client contracts a high power, he may pay even more for the power than for energy. In a free market economy, the market has own rules that are dependent (in general) from the policy of the enterprises, from the regulators, and from the quality of the service and from the price.

Dear Amin, you are absolutely right, energy intensity (EI), which is a measure of efficiency, is estimated by the amount of energy needed to produce a unit of wealth (GDP). The energy used to estimate EI is secondary energy (i.e. electricity) which is the one already transformed from primary energy (nuclear, fossil fuels, RE, etc). My previous comment just intended to introduce into the analysis the primary energy variable, challenging in some way the concept of EI. For instance, country A and country B might have the same EI  but the former trasnforms hydropower into electricity whereas the latter obtains electricity from fossil fuels. Although we can say that both countries are equally efficient, are they? Should we consider "transformation losses"? 

Dear Juan, Thank you for the clarification, but what about the differences in Energy Content of various energy sources.  How do they come into play?

Energy Source    Unit                  Energy Content (Btu)

Electricity        1 kWh                                      3412

Coal                 1 Ton                                   28000000

Crude Oil         1 Barrel - 42 gallons               5800000

Natural Gas     1 Cubic Foot                        950 - 1150

Fuel Oil no.1         1 Gallon                                          137400

Diesel Fuel           1 Gallon                                          139000

Gasoline               1 Gallon                                          124000

Heating Oil           1 Gallon                                          139000

Kerosene             1 Gallon                                           135000

Pellets                  1 Ton                                              16500000

Butane                   1 Cubic Foot                                    3200

Propane              1 Cubic Foot                                        2550

Wood (air dried)     1 pound                                            8000

Juan Espinoza said: "Although we can say that both countries are equally efficient,..."

No we can't.. EI is not a measure of efficiency, its a measure of normalized consumption. Having the same EI simply says that country A and B consume the same amount of primary energy per unit of GDP (PE/GDP) to meet their respective final demands. It says nothing about the efficiency of the required transformations, as Mahmoud pointed out. nor does it tell us anything about relative magnitudes of energy demand, or population and per capita demand.

for example: Assume country  A and B have the same EI...

If country A gets electricity from hydropower (or wind, solar, etc) then it is supplying a far higher portion of that PE for end-use or final energy consumption than country B is with its fossil fuel generation. This can be attributed of the higher transformation loses of fossil fuels; since more losses occur in converting coal to electricity. Thus, one could argue that Country A is more efficient than country B.

Yet, beyond knowing that country A has a much higher final demand, than country B, this equivalent EI comparison between Country A and B doesn't give us much information.

As I suggested earlier in this thread,: it would be good to look at historical trends of all expanded KAYA parameters: CO2 = P * GDP/P * FE/GDP * PE/FE * C02/PE (population * affluence * final energy intensity * energy conversion losses * carbon intensity of primary energy). In particular, note the expanded EI term : FE/GDP * PE/FE. This will highlight the transformation loses of the PE system.

Another analytical method, Activity-Structure-Intensity_Fuel (ASIF), has been demonstrated for the Mexican industrial sector:

González, D., Martínez, M., 2012. Decomposition analysis of CO2 emissions in the Mexican industrial sector. Energy Sustain. Dev. 16, 204–215. doi:10.1016/j.esd.2012.01.005

I have the feeling that some comments here went beyond Mahmoud's question regarding energy intensity and NOT greenhouse emissions.

In EI matters, final electricity energy has to be treated in a special way since, paradoxically (final is not primary), it has first to be converted to the primary energy needed to generate it:

- When the amounts of primary sources to generate electricity are known for a given country: replace each segment of the electricity generated by the primary energy needed to generate it after having converted it in toe according to its calorific value (like the ones proposed by Mahmoud). Make the sum of the toe's obtained having in mind that electricity generated from renewable sources is conventionally replaced by 0.26 toe of equivalent primary per MWh of electricity (to my mind, it results from the primary energy which might have been needed to obtain the same amount of electricity with a 33% efficiency).  The sum of primary sources consumed for electricity can then be added to the other final energies not used for electricity generation before dividing by GDP to get the EI. Antonio's reference to Wikipedia becomes then very useful to do this.

- When the primary sources are not known for a given country: use directly the same coefficient above (0.26toe/MWh) to convert all the electricity used in the country in equivalent primary before summing to other final energies not used for electricity generation . For sure, this not as precise as above but its is a satisfying approximation but it does not show variations in the country electricity conversion factor from year to year.

In these conditions, YES, countries A and B having the same EI become equivalent in terms of energy efficiency (inverse of EI), even using different primary energy sources. But it is true that their carbon intensity can be much different, but this is another story...

I follow normally the basic Socratic thinking (I suppose many people too). Definitions are fundamental. However, in a scientific context, anyone can always define any variable the way as he/she wish. He/she just have to explain clearly what the variable means to him/her, and why (as Juan, Jordan and Amin did, I suppose). Also, as Mahmoud pointed out, simplicity gives a lot of work (see Real Madrid playing football, for example), and is a virtue, not a drawback. Much more than a simple computation of a variable, everyone knows that there are many losses in the energetic sector and thus many aspects of efficiency can be discussed. That is perhaps one of the main reasons for so wide discussion.

Obviously, no way to avoid agreeing with Antonio's last comment.

All the best

I would like to thank everyone participated so far in the EI discussion. I learned a lot from you about the issue and ways to deal with it. There are much more to be learned ...

mahmoud

You are right dear @Mahmoud, we do never stop learning. It is continuous process and it lasts with us! man learns by the end of life, especially the researchers and scientists!

The Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) emphasizes innovative technologies to increase manufacturing agility and open new markets. AMO also maintains a range of projects, analyses, protocols, and strategies to reduce industrial energy intensity and carbon emissions in specific industries and technology

• Boilers and Steam Systems - Combustion
• Compressed Air; Distributed Energy/Combined Heat and Power (CHP) - Fuel and Feedstock Flexibility
• Information & Communications Technology / Data Centers - Materials for Industrial Use
• Motors, Fans, and Pumps - Nanomanufacturing
• Process Heating - Sensors & Automation

http://energy.gov/eere/amo/industries-technologies

in my opinion, reducing the heating and cooling load of the work places leads to significant reduction in EI. Reduction in heating and cooling can be achieved by improving the thermal quality of the buildings.

There are many ways to improve energy intensity in Industrial sector, commercial sector and domestic sector,  Any form of energy can ultimately be converted into electrical energy. The input energy may be heat energy, chemical energy, mechanical energy, geothermal energy, solar energy, etc. This chapter or discussion is like ocean. There are ways to reduce losses in output energy (electrical energy) as well to improve output energies. Thanks goes to Dr. Mahmoud Omid and other eminent people for sharing their knowledge on common platformon on this topic     

Dear  Dr. Maddali V S Murali Krishna. Thank you for commenting on this thread. I think the problem formulation is not hard from technical point of view. For instance, Iran is very rich in energy and water, and ... resources (has good resources in  all!), yet she is struggling on shortages for drinking water crises, wasting energy in buildings, optimization is the last think to bother about, etc, etc.. 

I think in addition to what you have just said about the necessity to reduce losses in output energy in order to improve EI we need a fundamental way of thinking too. I mean education and public awareness.

Another thing I would like to highlight here is that, we should not trust all data. Namely, some data hide some political conflict. As we all might still remember the scandal of Global Warming data (they changed the data so that they wanted to keep increasing temperature trend).

Dear Mohamad. Thank you for highlighting the importance of data quality.  As the saying goes  we should avoid ‘"garbage in, garbage out’". We should notice a good data quality leads to → good reliability. → good validity

I completely agree with Mohamad Kharseh's point about questioning ALL data (including from our own models), However, I must disagree with his reference to so-called 'climategate', since no one 'changed the data' as he states. (see http://www.factcheck.org/2009/12/climategate/)

There are other, more appropriate, forums for a discussion on this particular topic, and I am not looking for a fight here (certainly not at the end of an engaging conversation around Mahmoud Omid's question).

I am merely using this example as a reminder to the community that, as engineers and scientists, we should keep to facts and debates about the science and engineering and associated methods. Once we head down a path of unsupported subjective comments, we can quickly looses credibility, no matter which side of the discussion we're on.

To Mohamad Kharseh's point, however, one should always question data, and be transparent about data sources and references.

I do agreewithyou, Jordan, that there are more appropriateforums for this topic; so I will not defend my idea.

since the energy consumed by heating and cooling systems can be considered as waste energy (it is not used directly in producing line), I do agree with Mohamad.

Thank you @Lobana for your contribution. To get a decline in waste enery higher efficiency and structural changes in the economy are needed  So this may be achieved by finding more efficient means of energy use and eliminating wasted energy we would be able to reduce EI as well as helping green growth goals

A Comparison of Energy Intensities of Kerala with Other South Indian States and overall India

The energy intensities of Kerala have been compared with those of other south Indian states as well as that of all India. With an average energy intensity of 0.052, it stands as the least in the industrial energy intensity of the country. The energy efficiency performance in the manufacturing industry is dependent on economic factors and that energy intensity performance is more sensitive to economic and political change. 

http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/12721/11/11_chapter%205.pdf

Dear @Mahmoud, the state in energy sector in Serbia is not very good! "Analysis of the current situation in Serbia shows that energy efficiency policies fail in accomplishing the

desired objectives in terms of reductions in energy consumption. The main reason lies in a lack of understanding and in a focus on capacities for the implementation of energy efficiency policy which are totally undeveloped, insufficient and inappropriate for

the ambitious objectives that have been set. It must be understood that energy efficiency policy will not get implemented by itself and that capacities and capabilities are required in all social structures. Monitoring of the implementation of energy efficiency policy measures must be the top priority and the driving force for ongoing!"

Energy intensity is the only indicator which can be used for the assessment of energy efficiency at the high aggregation level at which it is not possible to characterize an

activity by means of technical or physical indicators, i.e., atthe level of the whole national economy or the sector .

http://www.vts.su.ac.rs/docs/expres2013/paper/10.%20Gvozdenac.pdf

http://www.dubrovnik2013.sdewes.org/presentations/SDEWES-2013-1086.pdf

Let me come back to Mahmoud's initial question : "What are the ways to reduce energy intensity?"

At a given country level, if we define the energy intensity as being the ratio of the primary energy consumption to the economic added value (AV) generated :

EI = (Eprimary / AV)

EI = (Eprimary / Efinal).(Efinal / AV)

where Efinal is the energy as available under an economic product:

EI = (Eprimary / Efinal).(Efinal / Euseful).(Euseful / AV)

where Euseful is the energy as the consumer needs (mechanical, thermal, et.)

EI = (1 / ηcountry).(1 / ηconversion).(1 / ηeconomic)

To reduce energy intensity of a given country one has to increase:

- the efficiency of the country to provide final energy (chain losses including all production and distribution losses in the whole country),

- the efficiency of the converters used by the "consumers" (primary sector, secondary sector, or services) to generate the useful energy they need to generate value added,

- the economic capability of the economic players to convert useful energy in money.

Depending on the aggregation level, this applies at a given sector level and also at a micro-economic level (but the first efficiency does not have to be considered in this last case, ηcountry=1).

Waste: avoiding wastes at the country level influences the first term (ηcountry) while avoiding wastes at the energy consumer level influences the two following terms (ηconversion and ηeconomic).

Answering to the remaining question, "How to improve ηcountry, ηconversion and ηeconomic?", needs complex multidisciplinary answers (technical and economic) on a case-by-case basis.

Note: what was called "conversion" can be replaced by "appliances".

Dear Amin, Thank you for your answers so far and specially for the last answer which is a sound explanation of EI through the decomposition approach and in estimating EI index as that of country, conversion and economic. Correlating EI to per capita income (GDP) is somehow misleading.  For instance, Sierra Leone has an EI of 2,459, with per capita GDP of $700. India whose process of industrialization is now well underway, has an EI of 4,001 and a per capita GDP of $2,700. China, a nation somewhat closer to completing their process of industrialization, has an EI of 7,906 and a per capita GDP of $5,300. It appears that pre-industrial economies (e.g., Sierra Leone) have very efficient EIs, but as a nation industrializes (e.g., China), its EI worsens, but per capita income rises.

When you divide the energy by the targetted population, then you have to divide the GDP by the same population number and you get the same unit: energy / currency unit. The EI stands also for the energy consumption of an "average citizen" to generate the a given revenue (reverse of energy efficiency: doing money with a given amount of energy).

There is something I do not understand in what is meant by "EI to per capita income (GDP)"...

Dear Amin, Thank you for quick response. I gave examples of three nations and compared their EIs with their per capita incomes.  By this I wanted to emphasis that an important dimension to EI estimation is to be able to correlate it to per capita income. Maybe my statement was not clear enough!

The fact is that EI has NOTHING to do with income per capita but with the origin of the income.

Countries strongly oriented towards services (like tourism or other) will make a lot of money with few energy and will have a low EI.

Countries with an important income from secondary sector (like heavy industries or mining) will need more energy to make the same amont of revenue and will have a high EI.

With a same activity segmentation, countries weather (very cold or very hot) can increase the global EI of the country (even if this is modulated by the families income to pay cooling or heating bills).

As shown in the attached graph,  in the relation shown between economic development and energy consumption, even if the distribution is not fortuitous, the dispersal around the "average behavior" is big because of a set of economic, climatic, social and cultural factors which are the "national specificities".

All the best

Dear Amin, If as you said "EI has NOTHING to do with income per capita" then why there is tendency for energy efficiency of the production system to increase and that of lifestyle to decrease as the economy develops. Actually, EI of GDP embraces the two concepts of energy efficiency on the production system and energy efficiency on lifestyle. For example, manufacturing productivity in economically developing nations is generally inefficient while their living standard is lower and energy consumption is  smaller. In other words, they have energy-intensive production systems and a non-energy intensive lifestyle at the same time. The opposite is true for economically mature countries, i.e., they simultaneously have non-energy-intensive production systems and an energy-intensive lifestyle based on large scale energy consumption.

I confess that my first sentence was voluntarily provocative but I have moderated it adding: In the relation shown between economic development and energy consumption, even if the distribution is not fortuitous, the dispersal around the "average behavior" is big because of a set of economic, climatic, social and cultural factors which make the "national specificities".

Thus, I think there is no generic answer to the question (e.g. based only on GDP) without a case-case analysis ! I will try to highlight some details as soon as I have access to some data I need to proceed.

Last week; I have submitted a paper to "Energy for Sustainable Development" which introduction deals partly with some of our topics here.

Dear Amin Thank you for clarification. Have a good time. We continue another time per suggested. Thank you for good and prompt responses so far. I really appropriate your comments.

Dear Mahmud Omi, this is an interesting observation which you have pointed out. I think EI is a factor of the total spending on scientific research by a nation. Richer nations spend more on science and technology based research. But in contrast to your claim, China is one example, which has seen tremendous growth in their GDP and EI, but their lifestyle not significantly changed. This can attributed to technology transfer and leapfrogging..

Energy budgeting and rational consumption are  important besides other measures. 

As promised...

Although all the points are far from being near the average curve, the attached graph shows that there is "average behavior" (blue curve referring to the left scale) which fitted, gives a dependence:

E=a.GDP^(1,193)

Which means that

IE=E/GDP=a.GDP^(0.193)

This is also shown in the same graph (red curve which refers to the right scale).

At the bottom line, this is a kind of an answer to the question regarding EI dependence against GDP: it increases in average.

Of course, this is only  a correlation and not causal.

For specific countries, such a statement may have no meaning because the dispersion is too large.

All the best,

Dear Amin, Thank you for producing and posting your graph clearly I helps the discussion. I guess the curves get more flatten if we dont use logarithmic numbers. in GDP axis.

Yes, you are right but if GDP vs E were not represented in logarithmic scale you would not distinguish between points having low values.

Note that EI intensity is not in logarithmic scale.

By the way, $ppa is the french translation $ppp (US$ at purchase power parity): without using a currency at ppp, it would have no meaning to compare so much different countries.

Reducing your energy consumption means reducing the amount of energy you use at home, work, and for transportation. Finding more efficient means of energy use and eliminating wasted energy will help both your finances and the environment.

Turn off computers when they are not in use.Many office workers and home users leave computers on at all times, even when not in use.

If your computer must remain on, turn the monitor off when it is not in use. This will not affect the performance of the computer.

Unplug all unused items.Many electronics and appliances consume electricity when they are not in use.

Unplug all unused items, such as a television that you are not watching, or plug them into a power strip that is able to be turned off. A power strip, when turned off, will cut all power to the device.

If you have an extra refrigerator that holds a small amount of items, consolidate those items into your main refrigerator and unplug the unused refrigerator.

Turn off lights when they are not in use.When leaving a room that nobody else is in, turn off the lights.

Make use of natural light.During the day, leave blinds and curtains open to allow the sunlight to light your home or workplace.

In the winter time, sunlight will also help heat your home

Use less heating and cooling energy when nobody is home and while sleeping.Set the heat to 55 degrees Fahrenheit (12.78 degrees Celsius) when you will be out for several hours or more or when sleeping, when you can use blankets to keep warm. This will keep your home warm enough to avoid damage to areas such as pipes without using too much energy.

If nobody will be home for several hours, turn your air conditioner to a higher temperature or off. While you may experience brief discomfort when you return home, you will avoid wasting energy.

and, etc.

you can find more methods on:

http://www.apec.org/Press/News-Releases/2012/1109_energy.aspx

http://www.wikihow.com/Image:Cool-a-Hot-Room-Step-2.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_intensity

I agree with you, Atena for some extend. Yes the human factor can reduce the energy consumption, but it would not affect that much on the EI. reducing the energy consumption at the nation level requires a policy not only human factor.

Thank you dear Atena and Mohamad for raising good concerns on energy consumption. We know that energy is necessary for daily survival. Future development crucially depends on its long-term availability in increasing quantities from sources that are dependable, safe, and environmentally sound.  So we should think about this question from the standpoint of sustainability and address .sustainability  measures such as:

See the following UN Document "Chapter 7: Energy: Choices for Environment and Development" for more information.

http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-07.htm

Hi Prof.Mahmoud Omid; Here is some facts regarding Indian Energy portal.

The energy intensity of India is over twice that of the matured economies, which are represented by the OECD (Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development) member countries. India’s energy intensity is also much higher than the emerging economies—the Asian countries, which include the ASEAN member countries as well as China. However, since 1999, India’s energy intensity has been decreasing and is expected to continue to decrease.

The indicator of energy–GDP (gross domestic product) elasticity, that is, the ratio of growth rate of energy to the growth rate GDP, captures both the structure of the economy as well as the efficiency. The energy–GDP elasticity during 1953–2001 has been above unity. However, the elasticity for primary commercial energy consumption for 1991–2000 was less than unity (Planning Commission 2002). This could be attributed to several factors, some of them being demographic shifts from rural to urban areas, structural economic changes towards lesser energy industry, impressive growth of services, improvement in efficiency of energy use, and inter-fuel substitution.

The energy sector in India has been receiving high priority in the planning process. The total outlay on energy in the Tenth Five-year Plan has been projected to be 4.03 trillion rupees at 2001/02 prices, which is 26.7% of the total outlay. An increase of 84.2% is projected over the Ninth Five-year Plan in terms of the total plan outlay on energy sector. The Government of India in the mid-term review of the Tenth Plan recognized the fact that under-performance of the energy sector can be a major constraint in delivering a growth rate of 8% GDP during the plan period. It has, therefore, called for acceleration of the reforms process and adoption of an integrated energy policy.

In the recent years, the government has rightly recognized the energy security concerns of the nation and more importance is being placed on energy independence.

Reducing energy intensity in terms of source?

Dear Taratisio. Initially I was interested for its reduction at country level and end-use sectors (specially industrial), but as it is evolved and we received more responses/attention by participants we can even discuss the means of reducing energy consumption by energy sources/products, sector and end use, too.

In case of room lighting during the day then people can open all the windows for enough natural light. This will enable savings on lighting for the house. We can also use low house wattage appliances gadgets so as to save on the energy.

in Industry for rotary equipments, bearings are the important component wherein the energy can be reduced.

• Less unplanned downtime
• Protection from stray currents
• Increased reliability and uptime
• Optimized bearing selection
• Reduced maintenance
• Reduced energy consumption
• Reduced noise

http://www.skf.com/group/industry-solutions/electric-motors/industrial-electric-motors-and-generators/requirements/reduced-energy-consumption/index.html

Dear Taratisio Your suggestion of reducing domestic wattage is welcomed. However, opening the windows wont help from many aspect. It is cold here already and no one dare to open the windows to get some sunshine while losses so much trapped heat inside. It may work in summer time and in hot region having long sunshine hours. So by opening the windows neither we get enough light for quality life nor is feasible.  

Exactly, so the reducing energy consumption is a local measure that varies from region to another

Mahmoud Omid: I meant opening the windows in African countries.

Dear Mohamad. Although the steps will vary by country, by region and by sector, but there are many good practices or common policy that can be addressed/ implemented at all levels. For instance, the profile of energy efficiency needs to be raised, so that efficiency concerns are integrated into decision making (throughout government, industry and society), monitoring, verification and enforcement activities are essential to realize expected energy savings, etc.  Also, some unified policy may turn the efficient world scenario into reality. Notably energy use and GHG emissions are linked in a nearly one-to-one relationship.