For businesses and organizations, energy management is a crucial point, not only because it represents a significant expense but also for how energy efficiency can impact productivity, image, and relationships with stakeholders. Reducing environmental impact by aiming for carbon neutrality means companies must focus on sustainability and prioritize energy sourcing from renewable sources. On one hand, the regulatory framework, both at the community and national level, imposes growth that looks towards sustainability; on the other, poor and reckless energy management immediately affects costs and does not benefit productivity. Therefore, it is not only about complying with regulations but also about demonstrating a commitment to steering the company’s development towards environmental and economic sustainability. Industrial energy efficiency also involves an organization’s ability to recover energy, thereby limiting its sourcing. However, the importance of industrial efficiency, the process of optimizing energy resources, should not be overlooked. Controlling and improving the energy allocation of its plants becomes a growth variable for an industry or organization: better energy management becomes a competitive advantage. So, how can waste be reduced, costs cut, and the environment protected without compromising an organization’s productive capacity but rather making it more efficient and effective?
The Energy Management System (EMS)
An Energy Management System (EMS) encompasses all strategic activities an organization can utilize to manage energy efficiently, focusing on energy efficiency and savings. ISO 50001, or more precisely UNI EN ISO 50001, is an internationally voluntary standard specifying how to create or improve one’s EMS. It is a tool any organization can adopt to aim for sustainability achievable through a more conscious use of its energy resources in its activities. Adopting an EMS becomes an opportunity for the company to systematize its approach towards energy efficiency: from defining energy goals to developing a path that includes the tools to achieve these objectives. What operational initiatives should a company take to implement an Energy Management System? The starting point, after defining a clear energy policy and identifying the regulatory framework relevant to each company, is analyzing its energy performance.
Energy Audit of Its Plants
The energy efficiency audit or simply energy audit is an analysis of consumption that, by capturing the energy use of machines and more, makes it possible to precisely identify areas with waste or inefficiencies. The analysis provided by the energy audit does not only report data on consumption and machine efficiency but allows the company to be examined as a whole in terms of energy resources. A scheme of the entire energy ecosystem in which the different production processes are inserted thus provides a global view. It is only through this comprehensive picture that evaluating the inefficiencies of a single plant or within the same phase clarifies how to find the best solution to intervene. Regulations require certain types of companies to conduct energy efficiency audits regularly: large companies and energy-intensive ones must do so every four years. The primary goal of this type of diagnosis is to have a clear picture of where energy consumption is allocated within the process, proceed with periodic measurement of the same, and identify sections that can be optimized to reduce consumption. The work done based on the data obtained from the energy audit aims to intervene where there are possible margins for improvement. It is not necessarily about waste, as in the case of cost fluctuations between different primary energies such as gas, electricity, and water. The intent is to improve the production flows whose consumption the analysis has reconstructed. Operationally, the initiatives following the analysis are structured and follow a precise model.
After the Energy Analysis: How the PDCA Scheme is Structured
The energy audit is the starting point. Subsequent organizational activities develop according to a defined Plan – Do – Check – Act (PDCA) scheme. This iterative management method is used for controlling and improving processes and products and can be applied to energy efficiency. It is a process, also known as continuous improvement, that involves four phases: with the energy efficiency audit, data is made available to establish the energy goals to pursue and the action plans to reach these targets according to the organization’s energy policy (Plan); at this point, it is possible to implement and execute the strategic activities identified for energy management (Do); then follows the phase dedicated to monitoring and supervising processes to keep operations under control to assess their effectiveness against the energy policy and the objectives identified previously (Check); finally, action is taken to correct and improve energy performance based on the results obtained (Act). The energy audit becomes even more useful if the diagnosis of energy performance is conducted in real time. If it is not a one-off, static analysis but becomes a process implemented in production, interventions, and corrective operations can genuinely optimize the management of energy resources.
IoT and Solutions for Energy Efficiency
IoT technologies allow the improvement of an organization’s energy efficiency performance by constantly and in real-time monitoring the energy expenditure of production flows and production lines. Replacing outdated and inefficient equipment contributes significantly to progress in this area, but implementing software solutions for measuring and monitoring energy expenditure is essential for the energy efficiency of industries. IoT solutions for energy efficiency are designed to be implemented in different systems, allowing, first of all, the collection of useful data, then extracting only those related to energy consumption for each machine within individual production flows. Without constant monitoring of consumption, it is impossible to plan and implement effective saving strategies because only through useful data feedback can the success of these strategies be proven. Only by implementing dedicated energy management software designed to identify inefficiencies can the assets or processes that need revising be identified to increase productivity while reducing costs. Such software provides the opportunity to apply the PDCA scheme and maximize production operations by looking at sustainability with strategies that optimize energy consumption.
Improving Productivity with IoT: Extreme Automation’s Solution
More attentive management of energy resources reduces production costs, making it more efficient if not increased. Extreme Automation’s solution is Omnia Energy: a highly performing product that helps identify waste patterns to prove the margin that a more careful allocation of energy resources can offer. To learn and discover how Omnia Energy can revise the energy management of a production plant, contact us.