Adapted from a recent article by Chris Evans, Marketing & Operations Group Manager at Mitsubishi Electric UK, who discusses implementing an energy management strategy and how existing automation control architecture can be used to help deliver significant energy savings.

Doing nothing is not an option

For many customers, one of their largest costs is energy, so it would seem obvious that tackling and improving the problem would be the natural thing to do.  However, this ignores the pressure of producing product and satisfying customer’s demands, which all manufacturers face on a daily basis.

An argument often heard is that the energy bill is seen as a ”sunk cost” or that it is the necessary evil endemic in the production process and that “it is what it is.”  The counter to this must be that it is widely reported that adopting a holistic approach to energy management can return savings of up to 30%, surely this possibility cannot be ignored.

Electric motors consume 60% of power

It is reported that 20% of the UK’s total energy usage centres on industrial processes and that 60% of that energy is consumed by electric motors. A typical production plant consists of a variety of machines often containing electric motors of various sizes and these are often connected by conveyors and handling systems, also brimming with electric motors.

Implementing intelligent control of plant equipment will create the possibility to dictate how it operates. This illustrates the difference between energy saving and energy management.

Use existing infrastructure to reduce costs

Programmable controllers (PLCs), inverter drives and other control equipment are capable of collecting energy information but may not have been programmed to deliver this in a manageable way.  It is there however and can often be easily accessed without affecting the control program already present.

This information can then be transferred across the control level network to a dedicated energy monitoring package, where full analysis can take place.  Mitsubishi Electric UK offers their Energy Control Pack which provides a wireless metering solution for gathering energy information, and the MX4Energy software solution allows total energy management of assets and the production environment. MX4Energy is also capable of monitoring non-electrical utilities such as oil, gas water etc. providing a total site management system.

Energy savings <30% are out there

It is perfectly understandable why manufacturers are so concerned about achieving production targets, sometimes at the expense of all other considerations.  Energy is a considerable cost to any business however, and any strategy that can reduce that cost by up to 30% has to be considered. It is proven that for relatively small levels of investment, significant savings can be made and it is clear that the cost of doing nothing will outweigh the cost of taking action.

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