Thiess Pty Ltd's Australian Mining business unit used 7.6 PJ of energy in the 2007/2008 financial year. This represented more than 85 per cent of Thiess Pty Ltd's total energy use and therefore meant that the Australian Mining business unit is required to conduct energy efficiency assessments and report publicly on the outcomes by December 2008 under the Federal Government's Energy Efficiency Opportunities (EEO) Act._x000D_
Thiess Pty Ltd has a policy commitment to sustainable development throughout its operations. This includes minimisation of its carbon footprint and the Australian Mining business unit has a strong focus on efficiency in all of its operations. It approached the energy efficiency assessment as an opportunity to further improve and build on its energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction focus in the business._x000D_
As a mine contractor, Thiess faced a number of challenges in designing an assessment process that would be both effective and efficient to deliver. For example, unlike most other companies involved in the Energy Efficiency Opportunities program, the energy use associated with the Australian Mining business unit is not fixed to any single geographic location in Australia._x000D_
Mining vehicles are moved from site to site according to the specific requirements of mine owners and the timing associated with the commencement and completion of contracts._x000D_
Thiess departed from a traditional site by site' based assessment and designed a representative assessment' approach that involved detailed investigation of data across all sites and a focused assessment on a single site.Data and analysis was an essential part of the assessment and indicators at company, mine and site level were essential in identifying opportunities and tracking progress._x000D_
Forty-six potential energy saving opportunities were identified and four of these are currently being implemented._x000D_
The projects being implemented are: payload management, automating mobile lighting equipment, plant idle time management, and turbo idle downtime._x000D_
The potential savings from the four major projects that have been identified are approximately 150 800 GJ/annum, equivalent to 10 600 tonnes of CO2-e/annum with a simple payback period of less than two years._x000D_
Beyond the fuel savings however, there are a number of other benefits from the assessment, including operational efficiency, reduced maintenance costs and even a potential reduction in the number of vehicles required to complete the work. The EEO assessment has significantly increased the importance and urgency of energy efficiency and facilitated the sharing of good practice across all Thiess operations. Not only have four projects been adopted for immediate implementation but a further pipeline of projects is available for future possible implementation._x000D_
This case study describes: how Thiess conducted its assessment including the use of energy data and indicators, the opportunities identified that are currently being implemented, and the lessons learnt and how other organisations can use these to improve their approach to energy efficiency assessments._x000D_
This case study is a more comprehensive version of a case study developed for the Commonwealth Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism. The assessment results reported in this case study are drawn from the Thiess Energy Efficiency Opportunities Report 2008._x000D_
FORMAL CITATION:Sartori, G and Crittenden, P, 2009. Designing energy efficiency assessments that work - Thiess Australian mining - case study, in Proceedings SDIMI 2009 - Sustainable Development Indicators in the Minerals Industry, pp 27-34 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).