In today’s business environment, investment in energy management is at the center of planned business decisions, particularly for energy-intensive companies, where competitive profit is often influenced by energy costs. Beyond industrial-level initiatives, energy efficiency is also crucial to address rising emissions levels, which is a corollary of industrial growth. The selection of energy efficiency strategies that work best for a company is very specific to a company or production unit. Many industrial plants have introduced advanced energy efficiency technologies.
Collectively, the way to improve energy efficiency is to detect and examine potential areas with measured data and evaluate to assess energy cost savings and investment requirement. The cost of energy can be reduced through a model in which the company sets a target cost per unit of energy and works to achieve it by reducing controllable costs. The energy management strategy is basically made up of two basic components: obtaining cheaper energy and, once obtained, avoiding its loss. Energy management represents a structured attempt by companies to address the problem of loss prevention by promoting energy efficiency. Basically, an energy management system made up of three different layers:
- Use of a data acquisition system that collects mechanical and electrical data that drives energy efficiency;
- Analysis of these data from a benchmarking, asset management and environmental impact perspective;
- Preparation of an actionable report that you provide to end users,
to. Operational problems, their solutions, implementation cost, operational benefits and savings estimate;
B. Cost-benefit analysis of the implementation of the necessary capital improvement project;
vs. Measurement and verification report to quantify the benefits of implementing operational arrangements and capital improvements;
Early adoption of such a system has been shown to produce results that suggest that the payback period for such initiatives is in weeks and months. Overall, these energy management systems provide companies with the opportunity to continually improve energy productivity and thereby reduce environmental impact.
There are energy service companies that offer these types of energy efficient solutions based on individual cost-benefit analysis and guaranteed savings. In general terms, the models of services provided by these companies are fee-based consulting, consulting based on bonuses or penalties, or savings guaranteed with the project financed by the host. The demand for energy is multiplying and energy sources are increasingly scarce and expensive. Among the different strategies to be developed for energy management, the efficient use of energy and its conservation appears as the best option considering that it is environmentally benign and profitable.