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 [...]
Today I had the most pleasant meeting at owners office of our manufacturing client. I experienced deep satisfaction when plant manager bragged about results of projects to the owner - lighting, grants, utility audit, compressed air system audit, changes in water supply, upcoming refrigeration optimisation and monitoring. And a grey-haired owner said: "I am happy with [...]
What’s the best way to fight global adjustment cost? Omitting numerous details, three options are available: behind the meter generation, batteries and curtailing. Below is a quick comparison of pros, cons and risks of these solutions. Natural gas generators – switch to own source of power during peak hours Vendor promise Install a behind the meter [...]
At a recent energy conference and tradeshow, #ESX2108, among other interesting presentations, one caught my attention - a serious approach offered by Peak Power Inc to reducing Global Adjustment charges by switching demand during peak hours to huge batteries. They consider peak chasing a mathematical game, and rightly so. Peak Power uses big data and machine learning to [...]
We have recently completed a comprehensive utility audit at a mid-size B2B food processing plant in the GTA and client has turned our recommendations into ‘projects to be completed this year’. A $50mln industrial food plant has been recently acquired and new owners decided to get it into shape. This plant buys electricity, natural [...]
Inadequate compressed air distribution network caused quality issues at plastic moulding operation. Through a recently completed energy audit at a plastic moulding plant we have established that a state-of-the-art variable speed compressor fed a dead-end distribution network, which was too narrow for the load. Compressed air distribution network can block air from reaching the machines. [...]
Various terms are used in relation to collecting and processing of energy consumption data. Some of the more common terms are submetering, energy management information system, monitoring and targeting (M&T), measurement and verification (M&V). Although these terms relate to overlapping activities, they are not equivalent in content, cost and, most importantly, in value for business. [...]
We all agree that Energy Management is important, even C-levels agree. Still too often it's not done. Why is that? This 2003 article - Overcoming Barriers to Effective Energy Management in Industrial Settings - names several barriers which I list below with my comments : Lack of Organizational Commitment If senior management is not committed to [...]
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 [...]
Yesterday I attended an interesting presentation at Energy Solutions Exhibition in Hamilton - a serious approach of Peak Power Inc to reducing demand during peak hours. Peak Power considers peak chasing a game of smarts, and they lots of them to the table. Weather your company belongs to Class A of Class B, Global Adjustment is [...]
