Empirical Investigation of Barriers and Driving Forces for Efficient Energy Management Practices in Non-Energy-Intensive Manufacturing Industries of Bangladesh

Abstract

Improved energy efficiency is being considered as one of the significant challenges to mitigating climate change all over the world. While developed countries have already adopted energy management and auditing practices to improve energy efficiency, the developing countries lag far behind. There are a limited number of studies which have been conducted in the context of developing countries, which mostly revolve around highly energy-intensive sectors. This study looks into the existence and importance of the challenges to and motivating forces for the adoption of energy management practices in Bangladesh, a developing country, focusing on the non-energy-intensive manufacturing industries. Conducted as a multiple case study, the results indicate the existence of several barriers towards adopting and implementing the management of energy practices in the non-energy-intensive industries of Bangladesh, where among them, “other preferences for capital venture” and “inadequate capital expenditure” are the most dominant. This study also identified a number of driving forces that can accelerate the acceptance of energy efficiency practices, such as the demands from the owner, loans, subsidies, and a lowered cost–benefit ratio. Findings of this study could assist the concerned stakeholders to develop beneficial policies and a proper regulatory framework for the non-energy-intensive industries of developing countries like Bangladesh.

A snapshot of coal‐fired power generation in Bangladesh: A demand–supply outlook

“…Numerous recent reviews on sustainable energy, efficient energy management and modelling for energy demand have been published and these articles are generally restricted to concentrate on dissipated infomation of scattered data on renewable energy and environmental sustainability (Islam, Taufiq‐Yap et al, 2013a; Islam et al, 2015; Kabir & Khan, 2020; Masud et al, 2019; Nazir et al, 2019, Uddin et al, 2019b, 2019a). Some studies presented the technological innovations on energy intensity (Amin & Rahman, 2019c, Chowdhury et al, 2020; Masud, Nuruzzaman, Ahamed, Ananno, & Tomal, 2020; Pan, Uddin, Han, & Pan, 2019), efficient energy management practices (Alam, Alam, Chowdhury, Sarkar, & Paul, 2019; Hasan, Hossain, Tuhin, Sakib, & Thollander, 2019) and foreign investment in Bangladeshʼs power sector (Islam, Chan et al, 2014a; Islam, Teo, Awual, & Taufiq‐Yap, 2019). Very few studies have attempted to review critically associated with fuel diversification in the future energy system of Bangladesh.…”

A Review of Energy Management Assessment Models for Industrial Energy Efficiency

“…Energy management and energy services are mostly studied through theoretically or conceptually, whilst energy management practices are studied in an empiric way [25]. Academic studies have been conducted regionally and beyond by many researchers about energy management practices and their characterization [15,[26][27][28]. Energy management practices, as well as energy services, are perceived as significant explanations, and few efforts are paid to depict them including the assessment model to facilitate industrial think tank focusing particular set of actions for improved energy management [24].…”

A comprehensive investigation of energy management practices within energy intensive industries in Bangladesh

“…Moreover, the past and contemporary studies discussed the developed economies mainly. To the best of author's knowledge, yet only a minimal number of studies have addressed energy management and its practices comprehensively in developing countries, with just a few contributions carried out respectively on textile industries [3], SMEs [20], and Ghana's largest industry park [21]. Also, researchers are starting to explore this topic in Bangladesh [2], but literature is far from being mature, offering ample room for further research.…”