BARZA corrected cost screen for aggregate compressed-air system leakage — the DOE Sourcebook's leak-rate and compressor-control benchmarks, an upper-bound illustrative cost in each country's own electricity tariff, and the leak-rate, control-type and cost data a site must gather before funding repairs.
- Decision question
- How much of a compressed-air system's electricity cost is realistically recoverable by fixing leaks, and what must be measured — the system's own leak rate, its compressor's control type and its own avoided electricity cost — before funding a leak-detection-and-repair programme in the UAE, Oman or Saudi Arabia?
- Audience
- Plant engineering manager, maintenance manager or facilities engineer operating an industrial compressed-air system in the UAE, Oman or Saudi Arabia, deciding whether to fund a leak-detection-and-repair programme
- Geography
- UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia
- Sector
- Industrial operations, Manufacturing, Facilities management
- Theme
- Energy, Water & Resource Efficiency
- Series
- BARZ Operational Performance Briefs
Decision question and audience
Compressed air is often called the "fourth utility" of an industrial plant, and it is the one most often left to leak unnoticed. A plant engineering manager, maintenance manager or facilities engineer running a compressed-air system in the UAE, Oman or Saudi Arabia regularly faces a request to fund a leak-detection-and-repair programme without a clear answer to the question that justifies the spend: how much electricity is the leak rate exposed to, and how much would a repair programme actually recover? This brief sets out what a widely used technical reference says about how much of a compressor's output a typical system loses to leaks, why that air-loss share is not automatically the same share of the electricity bill, re-prices an upper-bound illustrative loss against a tariff in each country, and states what a site must measure — its leak rate, control type and avoided electricity cost — before committing to a programme.
Executive summary
A compressed-air system that has not been well maintained will typically lose 20 % [1] [1] of its total production capacity to leaks; proactive leak detection and repair can bring that down to 10 % [1] [1] of compressor output, per the U.S. Department of Energy's compressed-air sourcebook. Applying the higher, unrepaired rate to an illustrative compressor system's assumed annual electricity consumption gives an illustrative 18,000 kWh of electricity exposed to leaks annually — an explicit upper bound, not a recoverable-savings estimate, since a leak-rate percentage converts one-to-one into an electricity-cost percentage only for some compressor control types, not for the load/unload control the Sourcebook describes as common on plant-air systems (Evidence and methodology below). Priced at each country's own tariff, that upper-bound figure comes to 6,840 AED in Dubai (DEWA) [2], 450 OMR in Oman [3] and 5,760 SAR in Saudi Arabia [4] — one identical assumed loss, priced at three tariffs that differ not only in rate but in customer category: Oman's is a Non-Residential tariff that by regulation covers industrial use, while Dubai's and Saudi's are each regulator's Commercial category, not its separate Industrial one (Limitations below). The numbers that actually matter — a site's own leak rate, control type, customer category and electricity cost — have to come from the site itself.
Evidence and methodology
The leak-rate and compressor-control figures come from Improving Compressed Air System Performance: A Sourcebook for Industry, a technical sourcebook the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy prepared with the Compressed Air Challenge®, read directly from the Department's own hosted PDF [1]. It is a U.S. publication, not a GCC-specific survey, standard or regulation, and states its figures as general ranges, not a measured statistic for any site or country; this brief treats them as benchmarks to compare a site's own measurement against, not as GCC data points.
Leak percentage is not automatically electricity-cost percentage. The Sourcebook's chapter on compressor controls explains why: on a load/unload-controlled compressor, the motor keeps running continuously and still draws between 15 % [1] and 35 % [1] [1] of full-load power while unloaded, delivering no useful air. A measured drop in air demand from fixing leaks therefore recovers less electricity than the same percentage applied to the kWh bill would suggest, since part of that kWh was being drawn anyway, unloaded. The Sourcebook describes start/stop control, by contrast, as using power "only while the compressor is running" — closer to a direct relationship between air and electricity saved — while modulating control on a lubricant-injected rotary screw compressor is "an inefficient means of varying compressor output." Which control a system has decides how much of the figure below a repair programme would actually recover — data a site must supply.
The calculations below apply the Sourcebook's 20 % [1] [1] figure to the same annual electricity consumption figure in all three countries, and price the resulting loss at a tariff this brief selected for each country, read directly from the underlying tariff observation in that country's own currency — Dubai's Commercial category under Executive Council Resolution No. (16) of 2011 [2], the Authority for Public Services Regulation's Non-Residential tariff as reported by Oman Observer, effective 1 January 2025 [3], and the Saudi Energy Company's Commercial category tariff as reported by ARY News [4] — Commercial, not each regulator's separate Industrial category, for the reason Limitations and missing data below states.
The annual consumption figure is a stated illustrative input, not derived from any source; each calculation's own inputs below set it to stay within the consumption boundary each tariff separately states for the rate this brief uses, so one identical scenario is valid under all three tariffs at once.
| Input | Value | Unit | Source or assumption |
|---|---|---|---|
| annual_kwh | 90,000 | kWh | assumption: illustrative annual electricity consumption of one plant-air compressor system, chosen to fall above the 72,000 kWh/year (6,000 kWh/month) threshold above which the Dubai and Saudi top commercial tariff slabs below apply and below the 100,000 kWh/year threshold above which Oman's Cost-Reflective Tariff would apply instead of the flat rate below — an order-of-magnitude scenario only, not a measurement of any specific site |
| leak_share | 20 | % | 2003 [1] |
Formula: annual_kwh * (leak_share / 100)
Calculated result: 18,000 kWh
- The annual electricity figure is an illustrative scenario, held constant across the Dubai, Oman and Saudi calculations below so that only the tariff varies.
- Uses the Sourcebook's typical, not well-maintained, leak-rate figure; a site's own measured rate may be higher or lower.
- An upper bound, not a recoverable-savings estimate: it assumes power draw scales directly with air output, which does not hold for a load/unload-controlled compressor (see Evidence and methodology above).
| Input | Value | Unit | Source or assumption |
|---|---|---|---|
| annual_kwh | 90,000 | kWh | assumption: same illustrative annual electricity consumption as leak_kwh_poor above |
| leak_share | 20 | % | 2003 [1] |
| tariff_dubai | 38 | fils/kWh | 2011, Dubai (DEWA) [2] |
Formula: annual_kwh * (leak_share / 100) * tariff_dubai
Calculated result: 6,840 AED
- Illustrative upper-bound scenario; not a measured site figure or a recoverable-savings estimate.
- Excludes DEWA's fuel surcharge, demand charges and VAT.
| Input | Value | Unit | Source or assumption |
|---|---|---|---|
| annual_kwh | 90,000 | kWh | assumption: same illustrative annual electricity consumption as leak_kwh_poor above |
| leak_share | 20 | % | 2003 [1] |
| tariff_oman | 25 | baisa/kWh | 2024 [3] |
Formula: annual_kwh * (leak_share / 100) * tariff_oman
Calculated result: 450 OMR
- Illustrative upper-bound scenario; not a measured site figure or a recoverable-savings estimate.
- Excludes the Cost-Reflective Tariff's transmission and distribution components, which do not apply in any case because the assumed consumption stays below the Cost-Reflective Tariff's own stated threshold.
| Input | Value | Unit | Source or assumption |
|---|---|---|---|
| annual_kwh | 90,000 | kWh | assumption: same illustrative annual electricity consumption as leak_kwh_poor above |
| leak_share | 20 | % | 2003 [1] |
| tariff_ksa | 32 | halala/kWh | 2026 [4] |
Formula: annual_kwh * (leak_share / 100) * tariff_ksa
Calculated result: 5,760 SAR
- Illustrative upper-bound scenario; not a measured site figure or a recoverable-savings estimate.
- The Saudi Energy Company's reported top-slab rate rises from 1 January 2027, which this brief's next_update date is set to recheck ahead of.
A site cannot act on the Sourcebook's general range without first measuring its own leak rate, using one of two methods needing no special instrumentation. Where the compressor has start/stop or load/unload controls, running it with every air-operated end use shut off and timing how long it stays loaded versus unloaded gives the leak rate directly, because the leaks alone keep it cycling. Where a downstream pressure gauge is available instead, timing how long the system bleeds down from its normal operating pressure to about half that, against the known volume of the receivers, mains and piping, gives the leak flow rate directly. Either result should then be compared against the 10 % [1] [1] ceiling the Sourcebook attributes to a well-maintained system, and read together with the compressor's own control type, since that converts a measured leak rate into an electricity estimate rather than only an air-flow one.
Alternative options
A site facing this question has several options, not only "run a leak-detection-and-repair programme or do not." The Sourcebook distinguishes two ways of running one once leaks are found: seek-and-repair, fixing each leak immediately on discovery, and leak-tag, logging a leak with a two-part tag for repair at a scheduled time; the better fit depends on a site's size, equipment criticality and maintenance culture, and a combination of the two is common. For finding leaks, the Sourcebook describes an ultrasonic acoustic detector — a directional microphone that picks out a leak's high-frequency hiss even over background noise, usable while equipment keeps running — as its most versatile method, against the simpler but slower alternative of soapy water and watching for bubbles. Short of a repair programme at all, the Sourcebook also describes lowering the system's operating pressure, since flow through a leak rises with the pressure differential across it, and isolating equipment no longer in use. A site that measures its own leak rate at or below the Sourcebook's well-maintained ceiling has a reasonable case for continuing to monitor rather than committing capital — provided that case also weighs its own control type and operating cost, not the illustrative scenario above, which exists only to show the order of magnitude a percentage-point difference represents once priced.
Limitations and missing data
The Sourcebook's leak-rate and unloaded-power figures are general ranges, not a GCC survey, a current post-2003 data point, or a site-specific measurement; no UAE, Oman or Saudi Arabia-specific survey of leak rates or compressor power curves was located. The 20 % [1] [1] and 10 % [1] [1] figures are benchmarks a site can measure itself against, not a universal threshold below which repairs are unnecessary: even a well-maintained system at or below the lower figure still loses some electricity to leaks, and the case for continuing a programme rests on a site's own measured rate and avoided-cost economics, not this figure alone.
The illustrative annual electricity consumption used above is a stated assumption, chosen only so one scenario stays within every tariff's own stated consumption boundary at once, and should not be read as representing any actual site. The upper-bound kWh and cost figures assume power draw scales directly with air output; Evidence and methodology above explains why that holds only for some compressor control types, and this brief has no data on which control type any actual site runs.
Dubai and Saudi Arabia each separately publish a lower Industrial tariff than the Commercial rate priced here: DEWA's is 23 fils/kWh (Dubai (DEWA)) [2] [2] against 38 fils/kWh (Dubai (DEWA)) [2] [2] Commercial; the Saudi Energy Company's is 20 halala/kWh [4] [4] against 32 halala/kWh [4] [4] Commercial. Commercial is priced because the illustrative site's connection category is unknown, and Commercial is the higher, not the lower, of the two in both schedules, keeping the figures an upper bound; an Industrial-connected site should re-price them lower. Oman has no equivalent mismatch: its Non-Residential category is defined by regulation to cover industrial use [3].
The three country costs use only the published tariff category stated above for each country; none includes demand charges, fuel surcharges, VAT or, for Oman, the Cost-Reflective Tariff above its published threshold, all of which a real bill would carry. Dubai's tariff rests on a 2011 legal resolution; no later consolidating resolution confirming its continued currency was located. This brief does not estimate the capital or labour cost of a repair programme, only the illustrative scale of what leak exposure can cost; no comparable GCC source for programme costs was found. The Sourcebook separately publishes its own worked cost example in U.S. dollars at a U.S. electricity rate; this brief does not use it, lacking a sourced exchange rate.
Practical next steps
Before funding a leak-detection-and-repair programme, a decision-maker in any of the three markets should first measure the site's own leak rate, rather than assuming either the 20 % [1] [1] or the 10 % [1] [1] figure applies. Second, identify the compressor's control type — start/stop, load/unload, modulating or variable-speed — since this determines how much of a measured leak reduction converts into a saving rather than staying as idle, unloaded draw. Third, price the measured loss, adjusted for that control type, at the site's own metered avoided-cost rate and run-hours, for a real rather than an illustrative business case. Fourth, choose between seek-and-repair and a documented leak-tag programme based on scale and maintenance capacity, and keep a dated leak log. Finally, re-measure periodically: leaks recur as fittings and seals age, which is why the Sourcebook frames repair as an ongoing programme.
Sources
- Improving Compressed Air System Performance: A Sourcebook for Industry — U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
- Executive Council Resolution No. (16) of 2011 Approving the Electricity and Water Tariff in the Emirate of Dubai
- New electricity tariffs come into effect on Wednesday — Oman Observer
- Saudi Arabia announces new electricity, water and wastewater charges — ARY News
Corrections and updates
- — retitled from a single-leak framing to aggregate compressed-air system leakage, and reframed the kWh and cost figures as an explicit upper bound that assumes power scales directly with air output, not a recoverable-savings estimate.
- — added the Sourcebook's load/unload unloaded-power range and explained why a leak-rate percentage does not convert one-to-one into an electricity-cost percentage, since recoverable savings depend on the compressor's control type and operating profile.
- — replaced three tariff inputs that had been retyped as assumptions (a sourced rate re-entered as a converted value with the observation named in the note) with direct references to the underlying tariff observations, so their source, scope and applicability are checked.
- — corrected the Oman scenario, which had used an annual consumption above the flat tariff's own stated Cost-Reflective Tariff threshold; the tariff observations now carry their consumption boundaries as checked fields, and the illustrative scenario was reset to satisfy all three boundaries at once.
- — labelled the UAE scenario Dubai (DEWA) and added that scope to the underlying tariff observation; removed an internal reference to the Directorate's assignment and to this desk's database from Evidence and methodology.
- — added a limitation that DEWA and SEC separately publish a lower Industrial-category tariff than the Commercial-category rate this brief prices, with its own sourced observations, and explained why this brief uses the Commercial rate instead.
- — corrected the Executive summary's claim that the three priced results differ only by tariff; the customer category differs too, since Oman's Non-Residential rate explicitly covers industrial use by regulation while Dubai's and Saudi's rates used here are specifically Commercial, not Industrial.