Manufacturing businesses across Europe are striving to reduce their energy usage and costs as they continue to rise, affecting bottom lines and ROI.The planet is also negatively affected by industrial energy use, responsible for26% of greenhouse gas emissionsworldwide. In the UK, the sector is said to consume17% of the total country’s energy demand.
With Brexit, some challenges in industrial energy consumption have only intensified in the UK. Bringing up the topic ofenergy managementin the corporate boardroom is an important first step, but what is even more critical is taking a holistic approach by following up and translating those conversations into concrete actions.
It is estimated thata third of manufacturers in the UKdo not have any energy goals in place nor have set any KPIs to measure their progress. In addition to this lack of long-term vision, the current energy crisis generating an outstanding rise in energy costs oftenleading to missed opportunitiesmade it harder for manufacturers to control their expenses and thus,remain competitive.
In this article, discover five measures you can take today to reduce the burden of high energy costs in manufacturing, regardless of your sector of activity.
5 Tips to Lower Your Energy Costs in Manufacturing
1. Empower your Energy Team with SMART goals
Speed and efficiencyare two key aspects of industrial manufacturing and modern production processes. Yet, both are more difficult to achieve than ever due to unpredictable system failures, uncontrolled overhead costs and energy waste. To reach their production goals quickly and efficiently, manufacturers mustalign operational performance with a comprehensive energy strategy– and task the right people to carry it out.
This can be done byassembling an energy teamresponsible for setting and meetingSMART energy management goals.
For instance, an industrial metallurgy plant in Spain managed to节省110000欧元by assigning adedicated energy teamto set, implement and continually review their SMART energy goals.
Once the objectives are clearly set, it is time to onboard employees in your journey. Indeed,an energy efficiency plan shouldn’t be only driven by executive and energy teams: this type of project needs to be collaborative and supported by all actors of a company. In this recent article, we talk abouthow to raise Energy Culture, and more precisely how to build enough knowledge and awareness around good energy use.
2. Start Monitoring Energy Consumption
每一块马nufacturing equipment in your plantis full of valuable datathat can reveal low or no-cost measures to eliminate energy waste that causes your bills to be unnecessarily high. Installingreal-time energy monitoring equipmentputs your energy team in full control of your energy consumption, with the side benefit of providing alerts that can help prevent breakdowns in the facility’s equipment. Monitoring can also generate off-hour consumption savings as in theTACSA industrial metallurgy case.Indeed, it is essential for you to be aware of the time, days and processes that generate the highest energy consumption in your plant. By doing so, you could avoid peak-period rates, and adjust accordingly your operational hours.
3. Switch to LED Lighting
First, you were told to switch from fluorescent to CFL, and now it’s all about LEDs.With alifespan of up to50,000 hours for high-quality LED lamps,there are significant energy savings to be made –on the order of 75%.Pretty hard to argue within a cost-benefit analysis you’ll need to submit to the CFO. Plus, a switch to LEDs comes with added benefits for your facility’s working environment byproviding a higher quality of lighting which increases safety and productivity.
4. Power Factor Correction
Power Factor(PF) refers to the ratio of real power to the apparent power flowing to an electrical load (e.g. a packaging machine in your production plant) from the power source. It is important for manufacturing businesses to understand howa poorly adjusted power factor can raise your facility’s energy bill.
When a motor is working inefficiently, the kVA (reactive power) increases which results in increased power consumption that might not show up on your utility bill, which typically measures KW (resistive power).Some utilities penalise customers whose power factor is too low, causing your energy bill to be unnecessarily high.
That’s why it’s essential toverify your kVA maximum demand with your utility, especially if you have installed more efficient equipment or upgraded certain machines in the last few years. Even though a lower demand is being placed on your system, your kVA might be higher than actually required.You can save as much as12% and reduce your energy losses by over 50%simply by asking for a power factor adjustment – at no additional cost to your operations.
As the utility market becomes increasingly deregulated, industrial manufacturers in the UK and Europe will be able to negotiate with多个提供者to help them get the best deal on energy costs in their production processes. But without the right information about the energy consumption profile of their facilities and processes, it can be difficult to shop around.
5. Look for Alternative Options to Reduce Energy Waste
Have you ever heard of the term waste-heat (WHE)?It is the heat produced by your machinery when creating products and by-products.One-sixth of the global energy consumptioncan be attributed to waste heat.This residual heat can be converted into energy that can then be reused in other production processes in your factory.This recent articleexplains how residual heat can be harnessed and reused and what are the benefits of its utilisation in your plant.
Use Technology to Measure the Impact
Do you now feel ready to implement a plan to lower your costs and improve your carbon footprint? If so, you’re on the right track!
For your plan to be successful, we strongly recommend youto monitor your actions with the help of technology. Implementing a tool such as an Energy Management System (EMS) will help you identify the zones (e.g., which machine or which area of your factory) that require the most energy efficiency measures to be taken. Moreover, you will be able to track and verify theproper functioning of these measures on a real-time basis.
Thanks to the implementation of an EMS like theDEXMA Platform, you can detect potential leaks and anomalies, analyse and optimise your energy consumption very easily. If you would like to know how to improve your energy performance with such a tool and head toward smarter manufacturing management, don’t hesitate tocontact us.
In this case study, learn how an industrial manufacturing facility in Spain solved this information gap and managed tosave more than 100,00 EURin the process:
