The company's study estimates the industrial electricity-efficiency potential - the proportion of current electricity consumption that could be saved if more electricity-efficient equipment were installed. In the UK, the industrial electricity-efficiency potential is about 14.2%.
SFS said: "Potential to reduce electricity consumption remains, particularly in production processes where production control systems and variable speed motors can radically cut electricity usage."
It added: "As electricity makes up a growing proportion of industrial energy use, the issue of optimising electricity consumption is becoming an increasing challenge for the manufacturing sector. Electricity usage in manufacturing has risen three times faster than overall energy use over the last 40 years. It now represents over a quarter of industrial energy consumption. At the same time, the unit cost of that electricity has increased significantly over the last decade. Reducing electricity consumption is therefore vital to the economic health of manufacturing."
Across the globe manufacturers are increasingly keen to focus on installing more electricity-efficient equipment to reduce the consumption and cost of electricity. These can range from optimized motor-driven and automation systems to the recovery of heat from production processes for electricity generation.
Brian Foster, head of industry finance at SFS, said: "Investing in electricity-efficiency technologies not only helps cut energy bills, manufacturing costs and carbon emissions. New equipment often brings productivity and capacity improvements as an added bonus, improving business performance and competitiveness."
