Energy assessments find more than $380,000 annual savings for textiles businesses

An energy-efficiency program could save 10 textiles companies up to $381,000 this year. The companies signed up to the Textiles Sector Energy Efficiency Programme following its launch in July.

The Textile Industry of NZ Association (Textiles NZ) program is funded by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) and provides member companies with half-price energy assessments. The specialist advice on how to reduce on-site energy use has revealed a total of 8.4 GWh of annual energy savings - equivalent to the energy use of 730 houses.

Demand for the Textiles NZ assessments has been very high. Ten assessments have been completed since the program began with 10 more currently being scheduled.

Textiles Energy Efficiency Programme Coordinator Simon Wilkinson says the assessment is an essential step in the development of sustainable energy solutions for the textile industry.

For each assessment, an accredited energy expert from Textiles NZ partner, Energy NZ, spends at least half a day on site and assesses all major energy using equipment.

“Opportunities to improve efficiency are identified and our contracted engineers estimate how many kilowatt-hours will be saved, how much it will cost to invest in the opportunity and, therefore, how much the company will save on energy costs,” said Wilkinson.

There have already been some great examples of energy saving, such as at La Nuova Apparelmaster in Taranaki, where auditors have found energy savings that will reduce La Nuova’s energy bills by 26% and save them $36,543 a year.

“The textile sector energy-efficiency program worked really well for us here at La Nuova, we had both our dry-cleaning plant and our laundry audited,” said Brad Craig of La Nuova. “I was impressed with the level of detail that the auditor went into.”

After the assessment a Textiles NZ program coordinator works with the company to develop an action plan to realise the energy savings. Additional support is given to create an energy policy, set up energy monitoring and, wherever possible, tap into funding sources that are available to support the purchase of energy-efficient technology. Companies are supported over a nine-month period in order to achieve the estimated savings.

Wilkinson says each plant is assessed taking into account its unique set-up and solutions are tailored to the needs of the business.

“The textiles sector contains such a variety of business types so it is very difficult to generalise about energy-efficiency opportunities. There are huge differences between a wool-spinning plant and a garment assembly operation, for example.”

He advises that assessments typically find a number of energy-saving opportunities that are zero cost, or that are very low cost to implement and have a payback of less than one year. There are also medium-term opportunities which payback in one to three years.

“And then there can be the large capital cost opportunities that deliver significant levels of savings with longer payback. For these significant opportunities there is often funding available in New Zealand to shorten the payback period,” said Wilkinson.

The EECA offers a grant of up to 40% towards the capital costs of new equipment that delivers energy savings for a business. The Textiles NZ program assists companies in applying for this funding.