So why is it essential to utilize energy management systems?

First of all, let’s define what the phrase of „energy-management system” means. An energy-management system includes measurement device sub-systems with the possibility of user-intervention on failure. By utilizing such a system we are able to continuously track and analyse consumption/quality patterns, and determine low-efficiency areas quickly and easily, giving the opportunity to respond fast and efficiently.



Recently the ISO 50001 standard has been released, which defines in great detail the expected structure of an energy-management system and the requirements of its installation.
Installing energy-management systems is outstandingly significant for enterprises to keep their market competency, which I would explain below.
For the companies its a vital factor to create their products as economically as possible. With energy-management systems we are able to recognize the inefficient areas of our production-cycle.

Some examples to define these statements in greater detail:
  • In production lines, with the help of continous measurement we have the opportunity to define our consumption (both for the production and stalling periods). Very often we experience, that the consumption is unexpectedly high in stalling periods (the PLC programs do not shut down the whole production unit in case of stalling; there is still heating in he building).
  • Another very common problem, when multiple production lines produce the same product, and for some reason there is still significant difference between the consumptions. This is resulted from the inappropriate maintenance of the production lines, and by discovering the problem too late (because of the lack ofutilizing any measurement device, we can not track the power demands, like increased consumption of an engine). Often we only realize the problem when it’s too late, and the production device not possible to repair any more, causing highly increased cost per product.
  • With continous measurement of the technology, we can define the weak points, where we are able to save energy with specific changes (with the usage of low-consumption frequency regulators for example). It is also important to find out the time it takes for the investment cost to return. Very often this time interval is not determined precisely, which will result cancellation of the projects, because of the lack of any installed measurement-system. The inefficient production will continue without the knowledge of the company.


It is a top priority goal for companies to develop and install an energy management system, which consists of measurement devices (collecting water, gas, air, electricity statistics), and an energy management software, providing all the measured data. With this provided data, we have the opportunity to make specific interventions (optimizing production, and energy usage, scheduling maintenance services), and arrange future projects to help optimize energy efficency, along with the data of expected return of investment. All these processes and investment can result about 30% energy saving.

Another exceptionally significant aspect for the companies, to exploit the production capacity on the maximum rate.  There are fundamental production shortfails, which are caused by the improper quality of electric energy. This quality-issue usually can come from 2 areas: one is the energy supplier, and the other one is the energy, produced by the factory itself. If we install devices, that are able to measure the power quality in our system, we are able to determine the source of the disorder precisely, and fix the issue. Very often these electric disorders cause unexpected failure of PLC devices, problems with interruptors, device-overheats, which will result the shutdown of the production lines. These issues result underproduction problems,  broken products, and the restarting process can be very costly. As of our experiences, with an energy management system, that provides statistical informations about our system, these shortfall periods can be reduced by a large amount, over 80%.

Last, but not least it is an important aspect for the company to forecast the expected energy costs per products. Knowing this value will help the company to be able to position their products properly on the market.

Energy management system, along with energy-efficient industrial aspects can also be utilized int he marketing sphere, to popularize the company and their products.

To summarize: the energy management system is an absolutely neccesary tool for any company, which helps companies to stabilize their position on the market, regardless of the rapidly growing energy costs.

Comments

Anna said…
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19 February 2013 at 06:44
Anna said…
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28 May 2013 at 06:09
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