Manufacturing sector ‘too focused on quick, easy energy wins’

According to James Palmer from the energy data management firm IMServ, the sector may have made minor energy reductions such as introducing low energy bulbs, encouraging staff to turn off lights and including PIR sensors in toilets, but with lighting only accounting for 20% of the UK's energy usage, looking at the other 80% was critical. He estimates that average savings of up to 30% could be made if measures like installing sub metering were taken to tackle the most energy intensive parts of a manufacturing business. Companies in industrial sectors such as cement & ceramics, chemicals, engineering food and drink, paper manufacturing and publishing/printing typically treated energy bills as a fixed cost, but are under increasing pressure to reduce energy expenditure and increase profits, Palmer says. He continued: "Being able to accurately measure energy usage in the first instance via automated meter readers is the way forward for these sectors. He suggests specific areas that will make an impact on energy costs include: • Identify overnight power users • Sub meter production lines to identify best performers • Set up league tables to allow comparisons of different manufacturing sites • Install lux sensors to maximise the value of ambient lighting and ensure orientation of lighting banks are parallel to windows • Control heating and cooling intelligently to take into account outside temperature, building fabric and orientation • Use dashboards to gain employee buy in, directly relating data to production units or profit • Monitor electricity, gas, water and oil/diesel and use a single point to correlate all data • Install a variable speed drive, this can save up to 30% on running costs • Turn off compressors. An idling compressor can use up to 40% of its full load • Ensure accurate energy monitoring in order to give the precise ROI on new equipment not just an ROI on the monitoring hardware.