Benchmarking Energy Consumption in
Coal Mining
Adrian Abbott &
Jody Asquith
“I understand the value of
developing a baseline to
know my site’s
performance, but how do
I know where I stand
relative to industry best
practice?”
The Answer…
Energy Benchmarking
Benchmark energy performance
– Site(s) performance relative to like operations
– Typical ranges of performance
– equipment level
– process level
Benchmarking Energy Performance
Where are we at?….
• Established an energy baseline
CHECK
• Developed sub process detail CHECK
• Identified energy performance metrics CHECK
• Reporting monthly, quarterly and annually…. CHECK
…but how do I know where I stand relative to industry best practice?
Benchmark Energy Performance!
• Map ALL of the above to like sites within the organisation, and
• Map ALL of the above to industry
Energetics’ Benchmarking Tool
• Utilises an energy dataset that has been built up and refined
over 25 years of working with the industry
• How is your operation performing relative to other, similar
operations and against industry best practice?
• How does the variability (range, frequency) of your own
energy performance compare with others?
• Identify areas which should be targeted for improvement,
even down to process or equipment type.
Electricity Consumption – O/C
• “Typical” site
• Focus on
areas of highest
consumption
•“Other”
indicates more
metering/
analysis needed
Vacuum Pump
1.70%
Vibrators
0.02%
Stacker /
Shovels Reclaimer
2.09%
Screens 5.37%
1.07%
ROM Handling
3.41%
Pumps
10.62%
Workshop
0.26% Admin
2.01%
Air compressors
0.34%
Bath House
1.31%
Centrifuge
1.06%
Conveyors
2.87%
Crushers
1.86%
Dragline
22.28%
Other
38.89%
Lighting
1.06%
Loadout
3.78%
Energy Balance
ACME Colliery
• Open cut mine using truck and shovel
• CHPP
• 7.5 million ROM tonnes/4 million tonnes product
Average site performance
Benchmarking Energy KPI - all mine types
Energy intensity
performance
indicators:
600.0
500.0
• Understand
industry average
• “per Saleable
Tonne” allows for
CHPP
300.0
200.0
100.0
Site Identifier
32
31
17
9
19
21
28
3
18
6
14
26
5
30
10
12
8
7
ACME
23
29
4
22
33
27
11
2
25
20
24
0.0
1
MJ per Saleable Tonne
400.0
Similar sites
Benchmarking Energy KPI against all other Open Cut using Truck
and Shovel
600.0
500.0
MJ per saleable tonne
400.0
300.0
200.0
100.0
0.0
20
22
29
ACME
7
8
12
30
Open Cut
Site Identifier
14
18
28
19
17
32
31
Energy cost performance
Energy Cost per Saleable Tonne vs Production - Monthly
$40
Understand range in
energy cost per month
of saleable coal during
varying monthly
production.
$/ Tonne Saleable Coal
$35
$30
$25
$20
Understand if your
range is ‘above’ or
‘below’ average.
$15
$10
$5
$-
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
Monthly Production, Thousand Tonne
All Sites
ACME Colliery
1,400
1,600
Can be used as a high
level ‘Trigger’ for further
investigation.
Energy intensity performance
spread – Quality of control!
Energy Performance Range
2,500
Understand industry
performance ranges
and average
MJ / tonne Saleable Coal
2,000
Highlights smallest
range ‘Min’ & largest
range ‘Max’
1,500
Max
Min
Average
1,000
Here, ACME
performs the best in
class with a tight
range.
500
All Sites
Max Range
Min Range
ACME
Performance frequency
Energy Use per Tonne Saleable Coal - Conveyors
30
ACME
25
Does ACME
frequently perform
within a certain
target range?
Frequency
20
Why?
15
Can frequency be
improved to the left
of chart?
10
5
0
1. - 1.2 - 1.4 - 1.6 - 1.8 - 2. - 2.2 - 2.4 - 2.6 - 2.8 - 3. - 3.2 - 3.4 - 3.6 - 3.8 - 4. - 4.2 - 4.4 - 4.6 - 4.8 - 5. - 5.2 - 5.4 - 5.6 - 5.8 - 6. - 6.2 - 6.4 - 6.6 -
1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
2
2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8
3
3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8
4
4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8
MJ/tonne Saleable Coal
5
5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8
6
6.2 6.4 6.6 6.8
How does ACME
compare amongst
industry?
Drilling down…
Electrical Energy Intensity by Equipment Type
14
Identifies major
equipment areas
MJ per tonne of Saleable Coal
12
10
Seek to understand
each unit in terms
of its level of
activity.
8
6
4
Such as:
High use by the
pumps - is it
because the pumps
aren’t performing or
does the site use
too much water?
2
0
ACME Colliery
All Sites
Summary
• Operational benefit
• Improve understanding of site performance (productivity, yield, etc)
• Financial benefits in lower cost of production
• As energy costs escalate, impacts will gain importance
• Energy management is another operational management dimension
• Identify largest stream & analyse/report
• Drill down
• Identify next largest stream…
• Should I accept what I see?
Next Steps
•“Harvest” the data from what you are already collecting
•Sub-metering and/or analysis to drill down deeper
Energy-mass balance
EEO
•Benchmark your results and identify areas to focus on for potential
improvement