Smart Energy Management

Sustainability and energy management are amongst the most talked about issues across the industrial landscape today. The costs associated with purchasing fuel and energy to run operations are significant and can affect the achievement of plant goals. Energy management needs to be assessed when making equipment decisions. Intelligent consumption of this energy can provide significant savings and free up funds to be allocated for other projects.

A great start is doing an energy audit on your equipment. It is not only a low cost way to gain vital data on your plant, but it can also troubleshoot issues that you may not have known were even there. A machine that is using an abnormal amount of energy is likely to have internal issues that may need to be assessed and/or fixed that are not only wasting energy, but could possibly be creating defects in your product.

* "When a decision is made to acquire a new machine, a manufacturer should consider the amount of energy that will be consumed by this machine during its lifecycle. Among expenses from the acquisition to dismantling of a machine, the purchase price accounts for 2% to 3% of the overall costs; the remainder is mainly its energy consumption."

It is a similar case with motors also. Oftentimes when sizing a motor, the thought process is that implementing a motor with extra power is the safest bet, but running a motor below its rated power will yield a drop in its efficiency and add to energy waste.

* "Making intelligent choices when choosing motors can save up to 30% of energy consumption over the life of the machine."

Thanks to new systems in motors and drives, simply upgrading one or both can provide significant savings without much effort. Making simple upgrades on equipment can greatly reduce the energy cost per part, thus significantly cutting costs and enhancing your bottom line.

*Ian Hitchins, Edited by: Mark T. Hoske, "OEM Sustainability: Energy Efficiency For Machines" 12/25/11 http://www.controleng.com/single-article/oem-sustainability-energy-efficiency-for-machines/a44a038d79.html

Upgrading to energy efficient and performance enhancing controls can provide big benefits to your bottom line.

What about the legacy systems that companies already have in place? The overall control system may be in need of improvements. By upgrading the components within the equipment a significant savings can result from less energy consumption, improved quality, and increased efficiency all at a relatively low cost. Does your company have aged equipment that is suffering from long downtime, high energy usage, and low process quality? Consider an upgrade to your existing equipment to make the equipment run at or above its original levels.