'Energy submetering project' is doomed to fail unless it is a 'data-based operations management enablement project'. With energy submeters getting cheaper, setting up a submetering project is a no-brainer and not a big deal, right? - Sure, if your sole goal is to spend money on new meters. It's a different story if your goal is [...]
I often hear that "Energy audit costs money, but saves no energy". This is true and not true at the same time. Here is why: Any experienced plant manager knows that their plant wastes utilities. No shame in this. Every plant wastes energy. Few plant managers know where exactly this waste occurs and even [...]
An industrial client asked me what meters to buy. My honest professional advice: do not buy any, because whatever meters you buy you will be disappointed later. Here is why. I am a strong proponent of measuring energy use. No sensible energy project can be implemented without measuring. Simplifying William Thomson – “to measure [...]
A mere 1 month after an Energy Management Information System (EMIS) project was postponed ‘due to other priorities’ our client’s plant has stopped for 3 days. About $500,000 lost in pre-holidays food product sales. Not to count costs of avoidable urgent repairs and value of lost trust from clients. Why did plant stop? Boiler [...]
Automatic data collection, purposeful analysis and alert on deviations to appropriate people is a key to sustained energy cost savings.
Companies with strong energy management demonstrate higher performance at the stock market. Do not take my word for it, here is a snapshot of stock performance of a well-known leader in energy management 3M USA (US:MMM, black) compared to Dow Jones US Chemicals Index (XX:DJUSCH, blue) over last 5 years as presented at Market Watch. [...]
How to produce more, use less energy and be rewarded for upgrades? It can be done. Our client, an injection moulding plant working for automotive sector, wanted to upgrade to bigger, more powerful machines. These machines use more energy. However, they produce so much more product, that energy use per pound is effectively lower. Much [...]
A friendly maintenance manager told me recently: “We will first do all we can with our big energy users and then proceed to an energy audit”. 'Big ticket items first' approach to energy management may hurt business and can hurt maintenance manager personally. This hurt can be avoided. If started right, big and impactful energy [...]
Simple payback period is routinely used as an ultimate ratio when it comes to selecting between energy projects. This practice may cost your company money in missed opportunities. Simple payback period (SPP) is the simplest way to assess profitability of an investment project. Simply divide first year cost by first year savings and you get [...]
Energy savings are small and unimpactful ... except they go directly to profit. How much a company has to produce, sell and ship to make the same profit? With a typical profit margin in manufacturing hovering around 5%, to generate $100K profit a company must sell $100K/5%=$2 mln worth of product. It's 2 weeks of work [...]
