Decomposition analysis of energy consumption for an freeway during its operation period: A case study for Guangdong, China

Freeways have become the main subject of energy conservation reviews in China because of their large energy consumption. Decomposition analysis has been widely applied in energy consumption studies. However, most studies have only analyzed the driving forces of energy consumption on the national level, and seldom at smaller levels, e.g. for departments like toll stations and maintenance centers. Based on the characteristics of the freeway operation period, this paper serves as a preliminary attempt at applying the logarithm mean Divisia index method I on the department level to analyze the energy consumption of freeways during the operation period. To elucidate the evolution of energy consumption during the operational period, the logarithm mean Divisia index analysis was performed to disentangle the energy consumption based on a real case in Guangdong from 2005 to 2013. The analyses establish that the traffic volume influences energy consumption. The results show that some departments can influence the total energy consumption. For example, the tunnels and toll stations are key factors that influence the total energy consumption of the whole road. The decomposition in the departments revealed that energy efficiency improvements caused by the use of alternate materials and energy-saving technologies mainly contributed to energy conservation.