Energy Management Solutions for Manufacturing Industry

Energy Management Solutions for the Manufacturing Industry

Introduction The industrial sector is critical to addressing the challenge of climate change as it accounts for close to 40 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Worldwide industrial energy consumption (electricity, coal, natural gas, renewables, liquids and other petroleum) is expected to grow from 174.5 quadrillion Btu in 2005 to 261.7 quadrillion Btu in 20351 With Energy being major chunk of operating cost of key Manufacturing industries like cement, steel and chemical industries, and the need for effective energy management is clearly more than just a buzz word, and is marking the clear shift from an ambiguous rhetoric to indispensible necessity. The energy management initiatives need greater sense of urgency than any time in the past.. The challenges that looms large upfront the manufacturing industry are the aggravating energy costs and its strategized energy use consumption that requires need to take stock of the situation , but the greatest challenge being the unrefined and obsolete approach as regards the identification , action planning and implementation is considered. The key drivers for this pertinent change range from the surging industrial demands to energy supply bottlenecks and rising costs of energy. Beyond these supply-demand and price factors, stricter regulatory compliance obligations with regard to environmental sustainability are prompting industry to proactively launch energy management initiatives

Challenges and opportunities

The most important contribution to reaching energy security and climate goals comes from the energy that we do not consume. - World Energy Outlook 2011, International Energy Agency

Some of the major challenges that effective energy management deployment is facing are: Understanding of Energy profiles of various components and plants and processes with preparation for separate action plan for each or a holistic plan. The lack of ability of many industrial organizations in critical identification of low priority and critical loads Indifferent approach towards energy efficiency with production and throughput being main priority. Considering the fact that it is one of the most energy intensive sectors, a proper capping on current malfunctioning can ensure significant energy savings.

Rather than considering energy challenge as a threat the need is to rise to grounds of situation and take it as a tremendous growth opportunity as to curb the significant negative social , economic impacts an un-confronted scenario may possess. While the opportunities for energy efficiency improvements are many, it requires an integrated system approach to unlock the full potential of energy savings The imminent must do plan is to curb the disconnect between energy and production that normally occurs in process environments. Following are the approaches undertaken to employ energy management strategies: Asset based: Use of energy-saving equipment and devices People Energy: Involves Employing of specialist for framing of energy conservation protocols Stand alone Based: Easy quick-fix approach, deals on a holistic approach With People based, asset based and stand alone system based approaches as improvement path pavers one of the most important link in the chain being missed is the process based approach, which involves automating process control for active energy management. Effective energy management in the industrial environment is better achieved through an integrated system approach, rather than by following a component based approach. That is why optimizing process control (which works as an integrated system on site and across sites) is being seen as a more significant energy efficiency improvement opportunity than most other options.

Automation and integrated control

Fixing the basic problems

Monitor and maintain

Measurement and metering

Improve

Passive Process Energy Management Process

Active Process

Identification of opportunities: Even the simple act of choosing the correct rating for each application will ensure that there are fewer instances of oversized motors resulting in lower efficiency and power factor. Human factors play a key role in energy management as well Looking at energy use in the context of time is also a useful avenue for savings. That is how high-cost non-essential processes can be shifted to off-peak times to take advantage of dynamic pricing arrangements with energy utilities. Similarly, location-driven opportunities (within a processing area, plant or across sites) can be identified and pursued; for example, where surplus stock is held, or where waste heat is excessive. However, effective energy management in the industrial environment is better achieved through an integrated system approach, rather than by following a component based approach. That is why optimizing process control (which works as an integrated system on site and across sites) is being seen as a more significant energy efficiency improvement opportunity than most other options. As per the Australian Energy Efficiency Opportunities (EEO) program process control had the second highest savings amongst identified opportunities.

Solutions: Effective energy management is achieved through proper identification of challenges and then turning the challenges into useful opportunities through strategized mitigation plans with several key options for different approaches. With integration of energy and operation management systems the same can be obtained. The first step involves a comprehensive assessment and analysis of an industrial users current energy consumption, followed by the identification of specific energy improvement opportunities. The best approach to energy management for that operational environment is selected. This prepares the ground for effective root cause analysis, the fine tuning of underlying architecture, designing an energy management information system (EMIS) for comprehensive and real-time consumption visibility, and finally energy optimization systems at an enterprise-level. Basic energy management strategies: Passive energy management It involves basic metering, measuring and capturing of data and dealing with obtained shortcomings with initial component based approach and coming up with basic solutions and fixes for the same. Measuring & metering For inducing operator actions to reduce possible energy wastage and shortcomings starts only with accurate and effective capturing of current performance in a real time dynamic frame, which in industrial context of energy consumption the same is done through the vast array of power meters hardwired around the plant that record energy use across devices and processes.

However, meter data is not typically drawn and viewed on the same screen as process data for plant operators.
Options available:

Best-in-class power metering and monitoring solutions that give users the visibility they need on electricity consumption in subsystems and on electrical flows to help improve efficiency. Vijeo Citect SCADA process control application that provides the site-wide process control and monitoring capability needed. Historian, the central data repository, which also has a Process Analyst to enable viewing of trends and time-stamped alarm data on a single integrated display. ION Enterprise power monitoring control application that enables tracking real-time power conditions, analyzing power quality and reliability, and responding rapidly to events impacting power use. Ampla MES which draws from plant and business systems to deliver easy-to-understand, realtime intelligence for productivity analysis, data mining, querying and reporting. This way, the operations are linked seamlessly to business and financial KPIs through a single, open architecture. Continuous improvement consulting services that help make sure that the underlying architecture accurately reflects production and energy consumption patterns.

Active Energy management It involves 4 basic steps: Automation and Integrated control Monitoring Maintenance Improvement

Turning intelligent energy into a Key Performance Indicator, with increasing pressures on cost and emissions reduction, being able to measure and quantify where and how energy is consumed can be a difficult task. PlantStruxure architecture is designed to optimize your plant with current installations and third-party . Its ability to collect and analyze both energy and production data can give you real insight into how much energy goes into producing your products, allowing you to manage energy as a production variable EcoStruxure is integrated, comprehensive, optimized, and efficient energy management that crosses your key enterprise domains (Power, Process, Security, Building, IT Space). It acts as a solution ecosystem, offering compatibility in key applications. It provides the right answer to energy management challenges, particularly for waste reduction and energy consumption savings. You produce more with less energy and fewer CO2 emissions, and consequently you boost your business productivity and sustainability.

Intelligent energy management: make decisions about energy use, supplier allocation and load shedding or shifting opportunities from a single point based on business KPIs. The advantage of leveraging process control solutions is their ability to relate energy flows across the whole system. This way, the focus is not on one piece of equipment or one shift or one operator. Opportunities (for energy savings or efficiency improvements) can be identified across the process (after all, energy at a manufacturing site is not only consumed in core production-related activity. In fact, in a mass-production environment, around 85% of energy is used in non-machining operations which are not directly related to production of parts. For rapid and low-cost deployment in some verticals (cement and water facilities), the energy management solution comes in bundled best-in-class templates and standard configurations. For unique conditions and processes, a sophisticated, customizable production optimization system is designed. These systems are scalable and can be easily integrated with existing automation architecture. Of equal significance to the advanced tools is the expertise and support that consulting service teams at Schneider Electric bring to each unique energy management challenge. Through energy management solutions and support, awareness of discrepancies in energy consumption can help users minimize variability and waste. The detailed view of how much energy is consumed (and how much energy is wasted), and at which processes, helps identify where the opportunities are for reducing variability or waste, what equipment or processes are underperforming, what types of operator behavior or operational procedures is significantly impacting energy use and what maintenance needs to be scheduled Metrics such as Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and energy consumption per output unit can be viewed across time so that the impact of improvement initiatives can be assessed. The approach that should be used to deliver this insight is two-pronged: Automating active energy management into the process for real-time impact Quantifying energy waste in the process and identify continuous improvement projects The use of an open, collaborative architecture that links process and energy monitoring systems, supported by expertise from energy management specialists, will go a long way towards helping industry optimize productivity and profitability, while at the same time meet energy efficiency goals Energy optimization systems with customizable web-enabled dashboards. They show KPIs related to factors such as energy consumption and costs in dynamic, meaningful displays turning data into intelligence for even more efficient energy optimization For rapid and low-cost deployment in some verticals (cement and water facilities), the energy management solution comes in bundled best-in-class templates and standard configurations. For unique conditions and processes, a sophisticated, customizable production optimization system is designed. These systems are scalable and can be easily integrated with existing automation architecture.

By enabling operators to view process and energy data on the same screen, such solutions can truly make operators energy efficiency champions who take energy saving decisions in real time rather than retrospectively.

Conclusion By effective deployment of both Active and passive energy management strategies with both the integration of Process control and integrated energy architecture enable the industrial organizations with the proper identification of flaws in the energy use patterns and suitable employment of strategized solutions for curbing the trend. These tools can help operators measure, improve and analyze energy and process data in context and in real-time; so that business and environment goals are met without the need for significantly large capital expenditure. It is expected that a day may come when industrial facilities are designed and built based on energy flows (rather than material flows). However, in the current and medium-term, by automating energy management directly to the process, smart organizations can improve their bottom line, competitiveness and compliance.

Avish Thakral B.Arch III IIT Roorkee