The Energy and Environmental Efficiency Assessment of Energy System: A Case of Thailand's Industry

Abstract

Thailand's industry is a prime sector that consumes a significant amount of energy throughout its supply chain and operations This paper aims to evaluate the energy and environmental efficiency of Thailand's industry with the implementation of energy conservation measures to meet the national target of Energy Efficiency Plan 2018-2037 (EEP2018), Alternative Energy Development Plan 2018-2037 (AEDP2018), and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) targeting at the end of 2037. The efficiency evaluation shows a sustainability score, which consists of 11 indicators within three dimensions: energy, environmental, economic dimension. 4 Scenarios are studied; (1) BAU, (2) the implementation of high-efficiency equipment and energy conservation in designated factories, (3) the implementation of solar PV rooftop, and fuel switching in a boiler system, (4) the combination of scenario 2 and 3. 4 steps of the indicator scoring start from targeting, scoring, weighting, to aggregating. For Thai industry, the analysis shows that the energy score is at 78.99 in the BAU scenario and can be improved to 93.92 when implementing EEP2018 and AEDP2018 measures. Also, it suggests that the corresponding environmental score can be improved from 52.60 in BAU scenario to 80.62 in scenario 4. For BAU scenario, the economic score is shown as 55.75 and gets improved to 73.67 in scenario 4. Consequently, the sustainability score of Thai industry is summarized as 58.73. With the implementation of the EEP2018 measures, the industry can increase a score to 71.14, 21.27% higher than that of BAU. However, for scenario as an implementation of AEDP2018, it is shown that the sustainability score will decrease to 64.48. Then, the industry implements both EEP2018 and AEDP2018 measures, increasing a score to 79.86. In particular, the chemical sector can reach a perfect score of 100 in all three dimensions. This shows a great contribution to meet the national target and bring the sustainable development to the country. However, the non-metallic products sector reveals the lowest score but it can be improved by implementation of additional measures suitable for the industry such as carbon capture storage (CCS) in the cement industry, material substitution, and material efficiency, etc.