Barriers to Industrial Energy Efficiency Improvement – Manufacturing SMEs of Pakistan☆

Abstract Industrial sector in Pakistan is the largest consumer of energy, accounts for more than 35% of total energy consumption in the country. The performance of this sector has been severely affected due to the adverse effect of current energy crises in the country. Energy conservation potentials of Pakistan's industrial sector through energy management can save wasted energy which would ultimately leads to economic and environmental benefits. However, due to the presence of various barriers, the implementation of effective industrial energy efficiency measures is a real challenge. This area has not been adequately explored in Pakistan and there is a lack of focus on need of industrial energy efficiency and proper management. The specific objective of this research is to investigate the existence of various barriers to industrial energy efficiency improvement in Pakistan. Data was collected from 192 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and analyzed using a Likert scale. The perceived empirical barriers to industrial energy efficiency have been ranked according to the average responses. The results reveal that, a significant relationship exists among the firms’ size, qualification level of energy managers and nature of barriers to the industrial energy efficiency, for the manufacturing SMEs in Pakistan.