Energy Efficiency Benchmarking for Industrial Electric Furnaces Begins, Electric Melting Furnaces Gain Policy Support

Industrial furnaces are major energy consumers in manufacturing, and their efficiency directly affects the outcome of the green transition. In 2026, relevant national authorities issued guidance documents and organized an action to benchmark and meet energy efficiency standards in key energy-using industries, requiring companies to identify gaps against advanced industry values and align with standard values. Melting processes for glass, glass fiber, and ceramic fiber are included in the assessment scope, energy consumption quotas and statistical assessment systems are being refined in parallel, furnace data reporting has become routine, and benchmark values are updated dynamically, pushing companies to keep improving. Management requirements for key energy-using units are tightening at the same time, unit energy consumption data is subject to external disclosure and assessment, and the choice of furnace technology route is being re-evaluated from an energy efficiency perspective.

Efficiency comparison highlights the electric melting advantage

Comparing an electric melting furnace with internal heating by molybdenum electrodes against a flame furnace of the same capacity, the former's thermal efficiency is close to twice that of the latter, and comprehensive energy consumption per unit of melt is significantly lower; higher thermal efficiency also means lower carbon emissions per unit of product. The benchmarking action prompts companies to calculate efficiency by process: glass wool, specialty glass, and glaze manufacturers have successively started construction of electric melting furnaces or electric boosting retrofits, and purchases of high-efficiency molybdenum electrodes and low-loss power supply systems have grown accordingly. For higher-value-added products, the share of electricity cost is manageable, electric melting offers better overall economics, and efficiency performance is beginning to enter line tendering and financing reviews.

Three levels of corporate response

• Equipment: use dense, long-life molybdenum electrodes and high-efficiency rectifier transformers to cut power consumption per unit;
• Control: integrate electric boosting into the energy management system and optimize electrode power curves according to peak and off-peak tariffs;
• Management: establish furnace energy consumption quota assessments and include electrode life and shutdown losses in the cost model;
• Data: build an online energy reporting system to support self-assessment against benchmarks and continuous improvement.

Policy and market reinforce each other

Unlike earlier administrative energy consumption targets, this round of benchmarking is linked to market instruments such as electricity pricing and credit, so efficiency retrofits can deliver real financial returns and companies are noticeably more proactive; market-based assessment and administrative constraints are being connected faster than before. The energy-saving value of electric melting furnaces is being recognized anew, and users are more willing to raise the share of electric heating. This also changes how the electrode industry is evaluated: electrode life and power consumption performance are directly tied to the user's efficiency results, and energy records have become a new basis for evaluating electrode purchases. WeiBeam.com's industry observation is that efficiency benchmarking will become a regular process and will provide medium- and long-term support for electrode demand; electrode suppliers that can offer energy calculations and retrofit plans will be embedded more deeply in customers' production systems.