Key Projects, Programs and Initiatives
NRCan Mine Energy Benchmarking Program Active
Benchmarking has been used in several sectors to identify best practices on different matters such as customer satisfaction levels, costs, or energy efficiency. Although tools have been developed to benchmark energy in certain industrial sectors, none are available to comprehensively assess energy performance for mines. The goal for this project is to develop such a tool in collaboration with stakeholders from the mining industry and MiTRAQ, a benchmarking software developer.
Internal benchmarking consists of assessing energy performance of a facility over time and can be used to identify changes in performance that could arise from deteriorating equipment, changes in operating procedures, or implementation of energy conservation measures. Conversely, in external benchmarking a facility compares its performance against that of a peer group with the goal of identifying best practice performance which can be used to set targets for improvement and motivate energy management efforts. The program that has been developed includes both of these types of benchmarking and is available for use by underground and surface mines.
A prototype platform has been developed and is currently (2018) in the testing phase. It is anticipated that the program will be available for dissemination to the mining industry on an international scale starting in 2019.
Benefits
The program that has been established includes a comprehensive list of input variables that affect energy use, specific to either underground or surface mines, thus enabling development of fair and meaningful KPIs to measure performance.
This platform will provide the mining industry with a pragmatic, easy-to-use tool that gives companies the ability to anonymously assess the energy efficiency of their operations in relation to others within the industry. This will be a practical vehicle to recognize companies that achieve outstanding energy management performance.
Energy benchmarking could identify inefficiencies and motivate efforts in energy management, leading to improving performance of the mining industry by reducing energy, operating costs and greenhouse gas emissions. The NRCan Mine Energy Benchmarking platform will provide mines with a viable process or system to assess the impact from investments in energy performance improvements, thus quantifying the benefits of their energy conservation efforts. The tool will also facilitate demonstrating improvement in energy performance despite increasing energy consumption from mining at deeper levels, supporting continuous improvement in energy management.
Areas of focus
Energy Efficiency
Partners & Collaborators
- MiTRAQ