Industrial Energy Saving

Energy monitoring systems based on Prodigy SCADA software allow accurate recording, reporting and analysis of utilities to target industrial energy saving.

Rising energy costs, energy tax levies and increased "green" awareness are making energy management essential for many industries. However, many businesses find they lack the level of information needed to effectively target energy saving initiatives. Without accurate information on when and where energy is being used how do you know which areas to target or what effect any industrial energy saving initiative is having? Industrial energy audit simplified Energy monitoring systems based on Prodigy industrial automation software have proved to be the perfect solution for a number of businesses. Realtime industrial energy monitoring of utility usage provides accurate data on demand, data analysis and reporting. Installation of such a system can automate total site energy demand and power monitoring and prove invaluable for industrial energy audit. Real time readout By monitoring utility supply lines by area or process a detailed picture of site wide consumption can be built up. Supply readouts are shown on screen with a graphical overview of the site or process layout provided if required. Any number or types of utility supply including electricity, gas, water, steam, air or effluent can be monitored. Powerful Analysis Powerful built in trending facilities allow fast analysis of current or historical energy demand. Graph trends can be configured to show single or multiple supplies as required with the capability to overlay trends for comparison. Trending energy consumption over any time period such as a shift, day, week, month,year etc.is easy and can quickly highlight usage patterns that might not otherwise be identified. If there is a "spike" or anomaly in consumption you can "zoom in" to reveal the exact date and time, down to one second, that it occurred. Long term trends in energy consumption show up clearly when supply data is trended over extended time periods. Reporting and Alarms Energy management reports of total, minimum, maximum and mean consumption on each supply can be produced automatically for any period daily, weekly, monthly or on demand. Any channel may be monitored for up to 4 alarm levels, low, high, extra low and extra high. Alarms are shown on the monitor screen alarm banner and status display and can also be sent to annuciators or distributed by e-mail or SMS text message to any mobile phone if required. Alarm occurrence, acceptance and reversion to normal state is recorded to disk to provide historical alarm reports. Any trend, report or alarm history can be printed out as a hard copy on any suitable printer. Tariff Demand Management Electricity tariffs can require careful management of demand to ensure the cheapest price. If demand peaks into a higher tariff band, even for a short period, this can increase the overall electricity price, not just for the period of high demand. Information from the energy monitoring system can be used to keep within tariff limits. By analysing demand from each process or area, changes in operation can often be made to smooth peaks in energy consumption. For example it may be worth staggering some processes or redistributing equipment between supplies. Alarms can be used to alert when demand starts to peak so that pre-emptive action can be taken to stop demand going into a higher tariff level. “Instant" Energy Saving Experience has shown that system users can often make immediate savings just by identifying changes needed in their operating procedures. The following are real examples: A monitoring system supplied to a food manufacturing company highlighted that demand from one of three main compressors was higher than it should have been. Investigation found that the cause was a fault on the compressor, which when rectified resulted in a 30% reduction in electricity consumption. A manufacturing company knew that at weekends, when there was no production, demand was much higher than expected. Hourly total consumption figures provided by their electricity supplier showed energy usage running at 70% of weekdays. Once the Prodigy system was installed it was possible to track the problem to specific areas of the plant where equipment was not being powered down over the weekend period. For several years a company night watchman had the task of switching on process heating equipment ready for the arrival of the day shift. Using Prodigy to analyse demand showed that large amounts of energy were being wasted because equipment was being switched on too early. By using the system trending facility the optimum time to switch on the equipment was quickly calculated. This gave immediate and significant savings. A standard Prodigy based energy monitoring system is available that will cover the needs of most users. Designed to monitor up to ten electricity power supply lines it can be easily expanded to monitor any number or type of supply. For more information please contact us or request a Prodigy software information pack. Example Application Prodigy industrial energy saving system in a food processing plant. Click here Article reprint from - Environment Business Magazine Application Summary Industrial energy saving. Press Release Industrial energy saving in the food industry. Press Release Energy saving initiative at United Biscuits - McVities Cake Company.