Natural gas prices have been steadily rising since the fall of 2003. Projections by Platts Research and Consulting completed in June 2004 show natural gas prices continuing to rise during the winter before leveling off in the spring. Manufacturing facilities that are using natural gas for process heating are seeing huge increases in the cost of production.

Since the increase in prices, it is more economical to take a closer look at your processes to see if electrotechnologies may be an option for reducing the cost of production. One technology that was once thought to never be a viable option in the US was large Electric Boilers. However, now that gas prices have crossed the $7.00 per million BTU and electric rates in the southeast being so low, electric boilers are becoming an option.

Electric boiler technology has been around a long time. The technology was first patented in 1928. The technology has advanced to the point were there are two types of boilers, Electrode and Resistance, available on the market by several different manufactures.

The boiler technology available depends on the size requirement for the application. Figure 1: Boiler Size shows the available technology and size level.

As seen in Figure 1, Resistance type boilers are used for smaller application less then 2.5 Mega-Watts. Between 2.5 and 5 Mega-Watts you can purchase either type of boiler technology. For applications requiring boilers larger then 5 Mega-Watts the technology shifts to Electrode boilers.

Another issue that is helping electric boilers become more popular is their efficiency. The efficiency of a new gas fired boiler can range from 75% up to 85%. As the boiler ages the efficiency will decrease and can be as low as 50% depending on the maintenance procedures and intervals. On the other hand, electric boilers start out with efficiencies above 95% and will maintain that efficiency over time. Figure 2 shows the typical efficiency rages for both gas fired and electric boilers.

Installation of electric boilers is being completed in many different forms, but the most common is a hybrid system with one electric boiler and one gas boiler operating with an automatic transfer switch. This arrangement allows for operation using the cheaper energy source providing savings to generate less than two year paybacks. This works for customers that are currently on or will switch to a Time of Use rate. During an electrical peak demand period it might not make sense to run the electric boiler, but during off peak hours (65% of the time) it does. The following graph provides the relationship between natural gas prices and electric rates. If you know your natural gas price and your electric rate you can determine if it is less expensive to operate using one fuel source or the other.

As the business world continues to change to a lean manufacturing market place utilizing the least number of resources possible it will become more important for companies to investigate the other benefits, such as environmental and reduced maintenance of electrotechnologies, long with the possible reduction in energy cost.