Monday, December 22, 2008

. ELECTRICAL ENERGY CONSERVATION USING DIAMOND HOT PLATE

Electric Hot Plate used in a diamond-processing unit is one of the vital devices and incidentally the biggest consumer of electricity in the diamond-processing industry. However, the fact that the hot plates that are commonly being used by the diamond industry are highly in-efficient and are responsible for unproductive energy consumption.
About 2 lakh such hot plates are in use by the Diamond Industry of Gujarat. Each hot plate is rating about 1000 watts. Assuming 10 hours daily operation a single hot plate consumes 10 units of electricity, i.e. 20 lakhs units per day and 7000 lakh units per annum for 2 lakh hot plates.
This design developed by the Savalia Research Centre has a potential of reducing the energy being consumed by conventional Diamond Hot Plate by almost 50 %. The new design hot plate would consume 5 units/day instead of 10 units/day. The salient feature of the new design are given : High conductivity hot plate material, Lower rating heating element, Automatic temperature control, Light weight, State of art insulation and Lower no-load consumption.
f all the 2 lakh conventional hot plates are replaced, by the new energy efficient design, reduction in the total load on the power grid can be expected to be of about 80 megawatts (assuming 40 % saving). This means avoiding an expenditure of Rs. 360 to 400 crores for setting up additional power generation facilities (assuming Rs. 4.5 to 5.0 crore per mW) against an investment of Rs. 30 crores on replacement cost of new design hot plates.(cost of hot plate @Rs. 1500/- per plate).

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