پتانسیل صرفه جویی در انرژی الکتریکی توسط جایگزینی یخچال و فریزر خانگی در مکزیک

We evaluate the potential for electric power saving in Mexico that would follow the substitution of old, low efficiency domestic refrigerators with modern, high efficiency ones. Our results indicate that a total substitution of domestic refrigerators would save 4.7 TWh/year, which represents 33% of the annual total consumption of 14.1 TWh. Assuming an average daily use of 14 h for domestic refrigeration, 900 MW of electricity would be saved. An annual substitution of 20% over 5 years would save approximately 1 TWh a year and almost 180 MW would be released. It is recommended that this program of replacement should be supported by the Federal and State governments, beginning with the States (which have more direct influence), and with the oldest, least efficient refrigerators along the lines followed in programs that introduced fluorescent compact lamps.

In Mexico, refrigeration is responsible for around 29% of the electricity consumption in the homes located in temperate climates and for 14% in those of warm climates where air conditioning is used. This situation produces problems for Mexican families so serious and complex that it is necessary to extensively subsidize the domestic electric rates. From 1997, the Mexican Official Standard (NOM in Spanish) of energy efficiency for domestic refrigerators has been implemented ( Norma Oficial Mexicana, 1997 and Norma Oficial Mexicana, 2002). Recently, the NOM-015-ENER-2002 standard went into effect making currently marketed refrigerators 30% more efficient than the ones sold previously. Nevertheless, the substitution rate is slow and the change of the current total of more than 23 million refrigerators will take many years at the current sales rate of approximately 1.6 million refrigerators a year. In this study, we have evaluated the composition of the total current domestic refrigerators in the country and states in order, later on, to carry out an estimate of the current consumption of electric power and the evaluation of the electric energy saving potential by means of the substitution of low efficiency old refrigerators with high efficiency modern ones. The achievement of this potential is very distant since the substitution of old for new models follows a very slow curve, first, because most Mexican households do not have the economic capacity to buy new refrigerators and second, because the technological durability of the refrigerators they already own – some more than 30–40 years old – makes the purchase of new ones unnecessary. Hence, we propose the organization of a government program that will rapidly substitute old and inefficient refrigerators for new and efficient ones. In support of such a program, information is needed about the relative magnitudes of electricity consumption of the old and the new refrigerators (Arroyo-Cabañas, 2002). For this purpose, statistical information on the total make-up of domestic refrigerators was gathered from census and population counts, sales, national production and imports and surveys of domestic expenditures. The results for individual States and the nation as a whole appear in Table 1 below. There the major user States are shown. It would be to them that the policy of intensive refrigeration substitution would be first applied. On the basis of the labels of energy efficiency as defined according to the Mexican Official Standard (NOM), it is estimated that refrigerators sold between 1995 and 2000 consumed 30% more electricity than those of the same size sold between 2001 and 2007, while those sold before 1980 consumed 60% more.

We have estimated the distribution of all domestic refrigerators for each Mexican States. Taking the Mexican Official Standard (NOM-015-ENER-2002) as a base for defining current consumption, electric energy consumption by national refrigeration in the country was evaluated. This has reached the significant quantity of 14.1 TWh/year. We also calculated the energy that might be saved by replacing old refrigerators of low efficiency with modern ones of high efficiency, suggesting this could reach a saving of 4.7 TWh/year, this being equivalent to 33% of the current consumption of electric power and representing a release of installed capacity of the order of 900 MW. We have proposed that to access these potential gains a governmental program of support for the purchase of advanced technology domestic refrigeration is essential.