Quantity Surveying

Despite several dire warnings on energy use and the environment, it appears that a lack of interest still prevails in some manufacturing companies. Take a meeting held in September, where the major market players met to discuss a shake-up of industry practices. The meeting, hosted by Mark Prisk MP, the shadow minister for enterprise, included suppliers and intermediaries as well as the regulator Ofgem, the watchdog Energywatch and SME representatives. One discussion concerned the number of businesses switching energy suppliers compared to the residential market - it's relatively low, with fewer than 10% changing suppliers each year. Given that 78% of small business owners consider their gas and/or electricity bills to be overpriced, this surprising inactivity was put down to 'inertia, lack of informed choice and the use of supplier loopholes'. Philip Davies, director of Ofgem, summed up by saying: "Some businesses are getting a good deal and others are not. Being a passive customer means that, as the years go by, you are much less likely to get a better deal than an active customer." Are you a passive customer? Surely it is time to find out more about your energy consumption, your deal, and your bills, and save some money? When it comes to energy use and the dreaded c-word - carbon - this can be an expensive lack of knowledge. Let's consider some simple facts, courtesy of E.on: the energy supplier has highlighted, with thermal imaging cameras, the impact of leaving some standard workplace items switched on. It's important to note that it's 'standard' workplace items - we're not talking complex machinery on the shopfloor. Yet the results are startling. E.on calculates that from a small group of items including one PC, a photocopier, a water cooler and a vending machine, the potential saving from switching them off when not in use is almost five tonnes of carbon, or £1,500 per year. Put into context, less than one tonne of carbon is equivalent to the energy needed to laser print 750,000 A4 sheets. Peter Haigh, director of B2B retail at E.on, says: "Businesses are responsible for around 40% of all the UK's carbon emissions, and many are now taking steps to tackle this. But whether yours is one of these or not, you can still do your bit by using resources carefully." It's not only industry that's being encouraged to get smart. In fact - as usual - there is a similar challenge to us in our home lives, which mirrors what we need to do at work. Speaking as he launched the government's consultation on energy metering and billing, energy minister Malcolm Wicks said: "Cutting carbon emissions is one of the greatest challenges we face. Smart meters provide the chance for each one of us to play our part, providing better information and more accurate billing. It is vital that we make best use of this emerging technology that will not only help cut our energy use, but reduce our bills, too." The consultation proposals include that all but the smallest businesses will have smart meters over the next five years, allowing energy suppliers to communicate directly with customers, removing the need for meter readings. Real-time display units show not only how much energy is being used, but also how much it costs when something is on. There's no doubt that smart metering is on its way. A good first step is to meter equipment now, and use that data to understand consumption. Initially, a business can speak to its supplier about metering. Take De La Rue, a commercial security paper maker and printer. Since 2001, the company has used Shell Gas Direct to supply natural gas to its high security paper mills at Overton, Hampshire and Bath. "We have some complex and sophisticated energy needs, which require the supportive relationship and level of expertise that Shell Gas Direct can provide," says currency procurement manager Gareth Chambers. The Overton site uses a CHP plant (combined heat and power) and uses over seven million therms of gas each year. The mains supply point at the CHP plant is metered daily - so De La Rue can easily reconcile invoices with its own production figures. This service is available to other clients through the provision of consumption reports. Catalyst for change It's not only the energy providers that are spurring change. The Energy Efficiency Accreditation Scheme (EEAS), for example, is an awards programme run by the Energy Institute (EI) to promote and recognise energy efficiency. Sarah Beacock, the EI's professional affairs director, explains: "In working towards a secure and sustainable economy, more organisations need to implement energy-efficient practices and become leaders in their fields through accreditation of their work. The EI is keen to promote professionalism within energy and the EEAS offers a fundamental way in which prove your organisation pays more than just lip service to reducing its energy consumption." One such organisation accredited to EEAS is Telford-based office equipment manufacturer Ricoh UK Products. "Although we have considered site-wide smart metering in the past, currently we only have electronic metering installed to our mains power, gas and water meters," says Andy Smith, the site's manufacturing support engineer. "The half-hourly data is used to monitor total consumption and out-of-hours usage profiles. We made a decision a couple of years back to concentrate our efforts - and budget - on the control and monitoring of our compressed air system use, which accounts for 35% of the site's power," he adds. "We are currently developing and installing our own control system to monitor constantly the efficiency of the compressor house. This is linked to our production monitoring system, allowing us to attribute live compressed air costs to each production run. The next step is to integrate the running power of each individual plant to provide total production power costs and allow live cost, power and CO2 calculations." More on control systems later. But before control, the data needs to be collected and measured, and this is where new technologies are coming into their own. Meter-Mimic, for example, was launched by C+G Management at the Energy Event (exhibition) in September. This new product turns all meters into smart meters, in a non-invasive way. Matthew Middleton, managing director of C+G Management, says: "We have been developing the Meter-Mimic system for three years and are delighted to be able to offer this technology at a time when energy and water conservation are becoming critical issues." He adds that the system "solves the fundamental problem of reading any type of existing utility meter". It does this without any physical connection - using 'advanced ferro-magnetic technology' to read the meters, before transferring the data by GPRS modem as an email. Elsewhere, another organisation argues that there is an alternative to installing new meters - use what is already there. Steve Barker is an energy management consultant at Siemens Automation & Drives and he says: "Many factories and facilities already use programmable logic controllers (PLCs) as a fundamental element of their machine or factory control. Such systems often include data collection... These characteristics make PLC systems ideally suited to monitoring and controlling many devices relevant to energy saving, such as variable speed drives, intelligent low voltage control gear, heating controllers, and motors and pumps." Barker says that it is perfectly feasible to integrate energy monitoring and control capabilities without engaging expensive additional energy management equipment such as bespoke energy management systems and special metering devices. "Adding intelligence to minimise unnecessary energy consumption into the equipment control philosophy provides an elegant and low-cost solution," he says. "Furthermore, cheaper tariff energy costs are available at certain times of the day and manufacturing facilities should use these periods to make significant energy savings. Again, load shedding must be done to avoid process issues, product deterioration or equipment damage, and the intelligent control system is well placed to implement this." Once the monitoring and control facilities are developed, it's relatively easy for the PLC to interchange data with other control and monitoring layers. And Barker adds that the old adage 'if you can't monitor it, you can't manage it' is truer today than ever. Linking efficiency improvements with process enhancements can provide lowest cost operation, improved overall effectiveness and optimum asset utilisation. Once the data is captured, whether through a daily reading, a consumption report, a smart meter, or a PLC, the question arises of how best to analyse it to turn it into relevant management information. Again, new systems are being launched to help businesses perform this task. One such example is Optima Energy Management, which has launched software that allows any building or industrial process to be modelled, to highlight problems and understand what affects energy costs. The crucial promise here - which should be music to the ears of all manufacturers - is that the system uses 'calculated Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) based on parameters defined by the user'. It can produce standard reports including tariff analysis, emissions monitoring and bill validation. Another system on the market is Virtual Energy Manager from Ener-g Efficiency, which links automatic meter reading with a building energy management system. It is seen as a management tool, giving users total control of energy and helping to quickly evaluate carbon footprints using dashboard displays. The company guarantees energy savings of around 30% - indeed, the company offers users money back should consumption reduction not reach agreed efficiency targets. The tool combines an internet portal, automatic meter reading and building energy management system, and can detail actual consumption by the hour. It also provides reports on financial performance, the carbon footprint, and it can raise alarms to report issues as they occur. Paul O' Brien, MD of Ener-g Efficiency, says: "The need to manage energy and reduce carbon emissions is increasing... The need for high quality, accurate energy data and effective energy management is clear. Virtual Energy Manager is designed for everyday use and will quickly tell users the status of their site and their performance against target. Within a few seconds, the energy dashboard provides easy-to-understand information at a glance. Interactive maps help identify and locate sites needing attention and simple icons quickly highlight actual performance." And he adds: "Knowledge is power and empowering managers is a key feature of Virtual Energy Manager - customers can choose who has access [to the system]. Experience shows that waste can be driven out more effectively by providing knowledge about energy use to managers throughout the organisation, from directors to shift supervisors. But when it comes to managing energy, people are interested in different things. Some need to know financial data, others want more technical detail." It's clear that new technologies can monitor and manage energy use - from simple devices through to sophisticated, multi-site systems. Power requires knowledge; knowledge requires visibility. Look and learn - and save money.