OCP’s energy policy promotes operational excellence through three main objectives:
- 100% clean energy by 2030
- Energy efficiency and optimization;
- Harnessing innovation to replace conventional power with clean energy.
To this effect, several commitments have been made in investment, design and operations, all with encouraging results.
As a major contributor to the global fertilizer market feeding a growing world population, OCP Group supports the transition to a more sustainable and resilient agriculture.
A vertically integrated industry asset, from phosphate rock extraction through industrial processing to phosphoric acid and fertilizer production, the group’s implements clear and responsible policies in resources management.
OCP has always been aware of its role in Morocco’s energy transition and the kingdom’s contribution to global climate goals. Indeed, the group’s energy sustainability program takes pride of place in both our industrial development and operations strategy.
OCP’s “Energy program” operates and evolves in a responsible and innovative manner to achieve the group’s sustainability targets in Energy Management, by increasing clean energy supply ratio and boosting Energy Efficiency through a clean and balanced energy mix, a significant contribution towards its Carbon Neutrality goal by 2040.
Today, clean power covers more than 87% of the Group’s electricity needs, through cogeneration which harnesses the heat generated by fertilizer production as well as through wind power today and solar energy by 2023. This power mix gives the Group a competitive edge in terms of energy and environmental performance compared to other industries operating in the same sector.
OCP’s constant focus is on boosting synergy between industrial units and facilities to optimize energy consumption. Building on recent achievements, the group integrated an optimized approach which covers now the whole value chain.
The group’s continual search for energy efficiency informs the design of its processing facilities to strengthen self-generation and optimize energy consumption, and harnesses cutting-edge technology and innovative solutions to improve its energy performance, in particular through the strategic decision to install Heat Recovery Systems (HRS) made in 2000, which has since provided with high energy efficiency at our Sulfuric Acid Plants (SAP).
Today, HRS integration increases heat recovery, thus enabling an additional self-power capacity of approximately 10MW eq for each plant equipped with HRS. This boosted self-generation by +20%.
In 2021, cogeneration at OCP produced more than 3,000 GWh of clean electricity, ensuring an excellent balance in energy management.
OCP‘s constant search for efficiency has also focused on transport: the new gravity-based Slurry Pipeline between the Khouribga mine and Jorf Lasfar platform, resulting in significantly reduced energy consumption as the pipeline not only replaces the train previously used but also the energy previously required to dry the phosphate: in its first seven years of operation, energy saving corresponds so far to what the Group consumes in a single year.
Across operations, OCP has also implemented its own Energy Management System (EMS), in all sites and at all levels: human, organizational and technological granting the group the ISO 50001 certification. This standard ensures operational excellence in energy management and continuous improvement in energy performance.
The figures speak for themselves: compared to 2019, total energy intensity and energy costs have been reduced by nearly 5%. OCP’s excellent energy management has provided strong resilience during the pandemic, continues to do so in the current energy crisis, and points the way to a brighter and cleaner future.
M. Hamid FADILE
Corporate Senior Energy Manager- Sustainability and Green Industrial development OCP Group
