Elgi Equipments Ltd. has announced the outcome of its successful partnership with the Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF), one of the largest textile groups in south India. ELGi’s air audit program helped ITF member-companies to reduce the average compressed air energy costs by upto 43%.
A 500-member strong organization covering all textile operations concentrated in Tamil Nadu, ITF’s mandate is to promote the textile sector. Its members collaborate in an environment of confidentiality and mutual respect to share best practices to improve the industry’s operational standards. Externally, the group leadership partners with the Government to raise awareness of the challenges facing the industry.
Given rising energy costs, textile units are exploring opportunities to reduce the cost of compressed air. To support the textile industry focus on energy reduction, ELGi partnered with ITF to design a comprehensive energy program. The program included information sessions for owners and general managers on the compressed air best practices, practical training sessions for textile maintenance engineers and free air audit programs that helped recognize significant cost savings.
On the partnership, Mr. Anvar Jay Varadaraj, Head of Marketing and Corporate Communications, ELGi, said: “Our relationship with ITF has been a resounding success owing to mutual respect and recognition of value. For ELGi, the ITF members have provided generous access to how textile customers are managing their compressed air systems, while mills have benefited from our expertise. With ITF, we’ve had an opportunity to directly engage with textile CEOs to understand their manufacturing challenges”
Mr. Prabhu Damodaran, Secretary of the Indian Texpreneurs Federation, said: “In our efforts to compete in the global market, this relationship focused on intelligent energy monitoring and optimizing air consumption levels. ELGi enabled us to bring about improved manufacturing efficiency and cost leadership through energy conservation.”
Air audit
An air audit is a review of an operation’s use of compressed air. The audit evaluates both the generation and distribution of compressed air. A review of generation evaluates the compressor’s performance compared to original specifications, energy consumption, current condition, and appropriateness for the application. A review of the distribution evaluates how compressed air is used in the plant, which includes leaks in the air lines and general consumption.
Compressed air systems are dynamic and inefficiencies develop over time owing to air leaks and changes in air consumption. An air audit assesses a compressed air system and identifies areas of inefficiency with corresponding cost savings if rectified. An engineer presents a detailed report with recommendations on how to recognize the potential savings. The technical training sessions with textile maintenance engineers help instill compressed air best practices which enable engineers to sustain efficiency.
The ELGi-ITF air audit program across 130 textile customers led to annual savings of Rs. 14 crores with an average compressed air energy cost reduction of 43%. ELGi will continue its engagement program.
Air Alert
ELGi recently announced the launch of Air Alert, a free of cost sim-based data transmission service that will monitor a compressor’s critical parameters to ensure optimum energy consumption and compressor failure prevention. ELGi has committed to 500 Air Alert-equipped machines by the end of December, and to date, 21 ITF customers have been Air Alert equipped.
On Air Alert, Mr. Anvar Jay Varadaraj said: “Air Alert will complement our energy program with ITF. Specifically, an Air Alert-equipped customer can rest assured that changes in energy consumption post an air audit will be detected by ELGi’s Air Alert service and reported immediately for rectification”.
By M.K. Prabhakar & Mohan Raj