Enterprise Energy Management Systems

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How to be an energy efficient facility

BY DAVE BOVANKOVICH, E-Mon

Energy efficiency starts with knowing how your facility is using its power. Electrical Source Magazine has five initial considerations for industrial facilities to be mindful of in deploying an enterprise energy management systems (EEMS), which can be used to reduce annual facility energy costs by as much as 15 percent or more.

According to the U.S.-based energy efficiency coalition, Alliance to Save Energy, “Energy efficiency gains of 10 percent to 30 percent can be achieved through operational changes in many industrial facilities.”

In response to the commonly held view that substantial energy-efficiency gains can only be realized through capital-intensive equipment upgrades, it is important to note that, by implementing best practices for energy management and energy-efficient equipment, as well as plant-wide energy audit recommendations; a plant’s annual energy costs can often be reduced by 10 to 15 percent, if not more.

REAL-WORLD EEMS IN ACTION
Consider the case of a manufacturing facility that split the energy bill with a sister division. The business unit in question was experiencing unusually high energy costs compared to other corporate facilities that manufactured the same products with similar equipment. As a result, the corporate office made preliminary plans to shut down the division and move the manufacturing operation to another area of the country with lower electrical tariffs.

In an attempt to solve the problem without having to relocate the business, managers installed advanced meters to separate the energy usage of the two divisions and an interval data recorder (IDR) to measure usage of specific equipment and processes.

Read the full article in our digital magazine

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