Energy management strategy for food Industry amidst the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic: yogurt manufacturing plant

This study aims to optimize the energy efficiency of an industrial production factory, using an optimal multi-objective model for electricity management during the COVID-19 pandemic. This tool is a procedure based on the load profile, and measured data at the level of each production chain, such as hourly electricity consumption by industrial equipment, and daily production. These measured data are used to calculate and evaluate two indicators of performance: the first indicator is the specific electricity consumption cost (SECC) which informs about the financial performance. The second is the specific electricity consumption (SEC) that highlights the energy performance of the production process. A case study was carried out on a yogurt manufacturing plant in Algeria. After optimization, SEC is decreased from 0.070 to 0.068 kWh/liter, and SECC is decreased from 7.2 to 6.6 cents US$/liter. In addition, the electricity consumption is reduced at the peak period from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. by 35%. Therefore, the monthly electricity bill is reduced by 4,089 $US/month which represents 10.2 %. It was also recorded that there is a new peak period formed between midday and 5 p.m. due to containment during this period of pandemic in Algeria.