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ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN SMART FACTORIES: THE ROUTE TO LOWER RUNNING COSTS Author: Steed WEBZELL
The concept of the smart factory has been steadily evolving over the past few years as it moves towards the goal of providing harmonious communication between shop-floor devices and enterprise-wide management systems. Ultimately, the ambition is to ensure productivity and quality are maximised, from quotation and order, to manufacturing and dispatch. Such a transition also provides the perfect opportunity to address a sometimes overlooked aspect of smart factory operations: energy efficiency.
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n recent years, a swathe of innovative, future-oriented solutions have come to market offering real-time smart metering capabilities for electricity, gas and water. By leveraging capability of this nature, energy efficiency can be seen as a core component of Industry 4.0. It is well documented that factories are among the world’s biggest consumers of energy, however, the use of power is clearly vital in ensuring the continuity and quality of end-toend production processes. With these thoughts in mind, it is critical to ensure energy efficiency at all times.
Most factories have a number of machines, systems and devices that consume energy, including machine tools, production lines, conveyors, motors, HVAC units, boilers, back-up generators and lighting, to list but a few. However, with the right smart technologies in place, plant managers no longer have to record samples of energy usage at predefined intervals, as is the case with traditional energy management systems. Although conventional systems help provide a snapshot of energy consumption, they do little to help curtail energy use, predict peak patterns or suggest what can be done to improve efficiency.
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In contrast, smart monitoring means that analyses can take place in real time, helping to optimise energy efficiency. Moreover, via the use of smart meters, it is possible to not only track energy use at its distribution point, but at various points of consumption throughout the smart factory. Transparent energy flows and data are clearly key for exploring optimisation potential. If these flows are also integrated into cloud-based IoT systems, valuable knowledge can be generated and used to optimise entire factory and business operations. 25 | Industry EMEA | July 2020
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