Reflections on energy consumption in the Cuban hotel sector
Summary.
In the present work, an outline of the importance of tourism for Cuba is made, some future concessions based on the use of energy, compares the incidences of energy consumption and energy costs of each of the carriers used in the tourism industry.
As the main element of expenses, electricity is determined and a benchmarking of the consumer quality brands used by the different Cuban hotel chains and the main variables that can influence the variation in consumption of this carrier is carried out.
Finally, some guidelines are given to be followed in future energy studies in order to find an indicator capable of adequately evaluating the electricity consumption of hotel facilities.
Introduction
Tourist activity, by its own definition, supposes that a visitor occupies a geographical space other than the one in which they have their habitual residence for a limited period of time. To enable and enhance the use for tourism purposes of the natural resources of a territory, man must develop an infrastructure that allows visitors to be welcomed, so that the territory is suitable for use as a tourist destination; that is, a tourist space is built.
Until the 1980s, tourism in Cuba was directed mainly at local tourism. But between 1985 and 1990, efforts were made to attract foreign investment and develop other economic sectors - which in turn implies investment in materials, equipment, resources and services, thus also becoming a source of employment.
Tourism growth in Cuba in the last 10 years.
It was in the 90s during which the development of international tourism reached rates almost impossible to imagine. The tourist flow multiplied 5 times, going from 34,000 in 1990 to over 1,600,000 in 1999. The gross income derived from tourism reached the figure of 1,900 million dollars. The annual growth rate, 19% in visitors and 26% in gross revenue, has been the highest in the entire Caribbean region.
Statistics prepared by (TRIANA1999) of the Cuban economy study center show that tourism in Cuba grew from 1990 to 1999 the number of rooms grew from 12,000 to 34,000, gross income grew from $ 240 million USD to $ 1959 million USD, reaching an arrival of tourists close to 1,600,000 tourists a year. In addition, it is expected a sustained growth of the sector of 16%, which by 2010 will enable 50,000 new rooms and be capable of admitting between 5 and 7 million tourists a year. As is logical, all this infrastructure must have guaranteed an adequate electricity supply of about 547.5 Gwh per year, which would represent approximately 5% of Cuba's consumption in 2001.
As for the hotels, if we discount the two-star hotels, the construction in accordance with medium and high standards of international comfort is appreciable, thus, while in 1990 there were only 75 hotels with 3 stars or more, in 1996 that figure rises to 128; and in 1999 there are 141 installations. This shows an arithmetic growth of 188% between 1990 and 1999. For its part, the number of rooms went from 11,600 rooms superior to two stars in 1990, to more than 26,000 in 1999, which means a growth close to 227 %.
The design of the hotel offer in Cuba includes a relatively high degree of concentration of hotel chains in certain quality segments. Thus, for the four main chains, "Cubanacán" and "Gran Caribe" basically cover (around 91% in 1998) the 5-star offer. For its part, Horizontes is the chain with the highest number of three-star facilities (46.7% of the total) and also two-star facilities (66%). "Gaviota", the smallest company in terms of number of facilities, is basically represented in the four-star category, representing 14.8% of the total facilities, in this segment "Horizons" and "Cubanacán" cover the remaining 83%.
The total income per tourists decreased in an absolute way as of 1996, so in 1990 these were $ 948.00 dollars, rising to a peak of $ 1,476.00 dollars in 1995, to start a decrease that was maintained until 1999, where the total income per tourist it was around $ 1,250.00.
The tourist flow is by nature seasonal, in reverse with the summer and the high temperatures, being for Cuba the month of greatest arrival of tourists December and the one with the least arrival June, the variation in terms of the number of tourists indicates that December receives, on average, between 166% and 200% of tourists than it does in June.
In general, the maximum tourist peaks are from November to March or April. Coinciding with the sugar harvest in the country. This peculiarity means that, although the idle factors in the economy decrease by no means, with the increase in tourist activity its cyclical or seasonal nature is accentuated in relative terms and favors lower energy consumption per occupied room.
Energy costs and competitiveness
The cost of the production or provision of services of your hotel can be defined as the monetary expression of the resources of all kinds used in the process of serving guests and institution users.
The conditions of competitiveness demand greater efficiency in the operation of the tourist facilities of the hotels, the cost / Income parameter of the facility being the most important. Data from hotels in California, Cuba and the territory of Espirituan which reflects that it oscillates between 0.70-0.80 cents per dollar of income (Travel 96, Campos 2000).
In this sense, a high component that is easy to reduce is the energy cost, which in international facilities ranges from 4% to 7% (Travel 96), while in Cuba this indicator reaches values from 8% to 16% of the income and can reach up to 20% (Horizons 2000).
In the hotel sector, in order to analyze and reach conclusions about the results of energy management, it is necessary to carry out a thorough evaluation and analysis and energy indicators such as:
•% energy expenses vs. Income.
• Physical energy consumption / m².
• Physical energy consumption / occupied room. Kwh / HDO
% energy expenses vs. Income.
Authors (Travel 95, González 2002, Looper 2000, among others) consider that a hotel facility to function efficiently, from the energy point of view, needs less than 5% of its costs with respect to income to cover it. The distributions of energy expenditure against income vary depending on the types of hotels and the category they have, as well as the type of service to be provided. Baseline data includes all carrier types and water.
In Cuba the hotels of the CUBANACAN, GRAN CARIBE, HORIZONTES chains this indicator oscillate between 8 and 16% and can reach up to 20% in hotels with a very backward infrastructure of their technological equipment (low EER air conditioners such as the BK 1500 and BK 2500, which together with energy consumption produce high noise levels and low comfort) and low levels of commercialization where the fixed costs of the energy components are very high and therefore it is very difficult to maintain an adequate productivity of the total costs with regarding the occupational level of the hotel.
Physical energy consumption / m2
In the United States and Mexico the average cost of energy in the hospitality industry is close to 16 dollars per square foot approximately $ 175 / m2 annually. The hotel industry spends $ 500 per room per year for oil and electricity (Looper 2000). In luxury Mexican hotels they usually pay up to $ 4000 / sq ft annually in energy costs.
In the Cuban case, this indicator is rarely used and physical consumption per occupied room is generally applied.
Physical energy consumption / occupied room. Kwh / HDO
In the hotel sector, there is a worldwide trend to express the index in Kilo Watt hour per occupied room day (KWh / HDO). In Cuba they consider it the same way, however there are great differences in magnitudes.
The quality marks in the consumption of electricity are not regulated or legislated in Cuba and only indicators that have been enriched by the different chains are used taking into account the history of consumption since its foundation in 1994.
As shown in Table 1.1, there is no uniformity in the established brands, and only in the case of water there is consensus and this is due to the fact that there is a rule that governs the supply of water to tourist facilities, the rest have established on empirical bases, considering criteria for the efficient operation of the technical services of various hotels and in practice these brands are working as fixed parameters without prior detailed studies of the current physical plant of each hotel.
Table 1.1: Energy indicators used by the different Cuban hotel chains.
|
Hotel chain |
Kwh / HDO |
M 3 / HDO |
Diesel LTS / HDO |
LPG Lts / HDO |
| Gran Caribe SA |
14-30 |
0.8-1 |
0.65-0.7 |
1.9 |
| Horizons S. A |
35-40 |
0.8-1 |
2.5 |
1.9-2 |
| Gaviota SA |
35-40 |
0.8-1 |
2-3.5 |
1.9-2 |
| Cubanacan SA |
30-60 |
0.8-1 |
- |
1.5-2 |
| Islazul SA |
27-60 |
0.8-1 |
2-2.5 |
1.5-2 |
In all the studies carried out and the bibliography consulted, the following energy cost structure is listed in order of importance: Electricity (65-75%), Diesel (10-15%), Liquefied Gas (8-12%) and others up to 5% of the total cost. Demonstrating that the area of greatest incidence to apply improvements and reduction of energy costs is electricity.
The systems that consume the most electrical energy are: Air conditioning (42%) and lighting (36%), while motors, elevators, refrigeration and laundry services each consume between 5-7% of energy. On the other hand, for hotels in the Caribbean, air conditioning consumption is somewhat higher, in the order of (55% - 65), mainly due to high ambient temperatures, while the cooling part consumes 14%, lighting 11%, fans and pumps 12% and hot water production 7%.
Studies have already been carried out to evaluate energy improvements, but almost all of them have found the difficulty of not having an indicator capable of adequately evaluating these improvements. An example of this is table 1,2 in which the regression coefficients of the dispersion graphs of the Kwh / HDO Vs HDO indicator of different Cuban hotel facilities are related.
Table: 1.2 Behavior of the regression indices in different Hotels between the consumption of electricity Vs the HDO.
| Studied Hotels | R 2 Correlation coefficient of the linear model |
Ancon SA |
0.050 |
| ZAZA Bank 1 |
0.146 |
Laureles SA |
0.147 |
| Iberostar SA |
0.053 |
| Costa Sur SA |
0.123 |
| Las Tunas SA |
0.144 |
| Union. SA |
0.012 |
The previous results make us think that other factors besides HDO have an influence on the electricity consumption of hotel facilities and therefore the Kwh-HDO indicator used to date does not show the variability of the installation's electricity consumption, for so any analysis carried out using this indicator does not offer a correct assessment of its energy efficiency.
Variables that influence the electricity consumption of the Hotels
It is important to know the variables that influence the electricity consumption of hotels in order to try to reduce their impact on total consumption. In Caribbean countries where outdoor temperatures are high and comfort levels are the same for all people, one of the variables with the greatest impact on consumption is:
Climate: This variable is the most important in the consumption of electrical energy and in tropical countries, up to 10 times more energy can be consumed in the same room in summer (Ramos, 1999), compared to winter consumption. In the Cuban case, it is closely related to the time of year where the months of July and August are the hottest in the country, and months such as May-June, September-October, the average temperatures are lower due to the effect of the increase in the rain and with it occurs a cooling of the outside temperatures.
Hotel Category: Depending on the category of the tourist facility, the quality and supply standards that the client should receive are different. The level of technological equipment is not the same, for example, in hotels up to 3 stars, less efficient window air conditioning equipment is used than the centralized equipment used in 4 and 5 star hotels and if we know that the fundamental load in hotels is the air conditioning, this will make a substantial difference when analyzing the indicators of the different hotels.
Consumption standards for them are very different when in normal hotels $ 16 / ft2 is used, in luxury hotels it may reach $ 4000 / ft2 (Looper). For small buildings, the energy costs of the rooms tend to be higher, because they generally do not serve conference rooms or common areas. Large hotels tend to provide these services in addition to dance halls, restaurants, among others, which also consume energy.
Type of Tourism: The maximum energy consumption of a room is represented by the air conditioning followed by the lighting and in both cases the consumption or not of electrical energy depends on the operating regime to which it is subjected, the number of tourists and the time spent. stay in it, customs and consumption habits of each tourist (Betanzos, 2000).
Knowing these issues, many hotels have implemented the strategy of moving the entertainment to the peak and peak demand times of the national electrical energy system where the price of energy almost doubles to double with the aim of trying to keep customers away from the places greater consumption (Room) and displace consumption in a general way.
Preliminary studies carried out by Campos (1994) and Monteagudo (2002) confirm the importance of these indicators and the need to obtain models that relate the electricity consumption of hotel facilities with indicators of the variables previously analyzed.
Conclusions
• Tourism activity is on the rise in Cuba and one of the highest costs is represented by the energy consumption of its own activity.
• Electricity is the carrier with the highest incidence in costs and any action aimed at reducing its consumption would increase the profits of tourist facilities.
• The indicators currently used by the different chains are not capable of evaluating energy efficiency in hotels and are difficult to use as control instruments.
• There are variables that can influence the electricity consumption of hotels, which must be studied in depth in the search for adequate control instruments in the use of electricity in hotels.
Bibliography
1. Triana Cordovi, Juan. The Cuban economy 1999. www.cubasi.cu
2. Trave and Turrism Analyst, No. 2. 1997.The danger of stagnation of the tourist product of the sun and beach
3. González García, Juan Manuel. Integrated energy service management system. Hotel management. Sep.- October-1999. Page 7-14.
4. Chain Horizons energy manual. Direction of technical services. 82 p.
5. Loper, Joe. Performance contracts. www.conae.gob.mx/ahorro/escos.html. 5 p.
6. Ramos Niembro, Gaudencio. Impact on the electrical energy consumption of equipment and appliances in standby state. Newsletter iie Jan-Feb 2000. 10 pag.
7. Betanzos, Miguel. Energy saving project Hotel Fiesta América Mérida. ATPAE. Page 133-140
8. Campos Avella, Juan. C. Enterprise energy management technology. CEEMA. 10 p.
9. Monteagudo, José. Implementation of TGTEE in the Hotel Unión. Diploma thesis. Tutor. 2002. 50 p.
Download the original file
