Industrial Energy Monitoring

Energy Monitoring

Energy Monitoring Rising energy costs, energy tax levies and increased "green" awareness are driving businesses to reduce their energy usage. However, many businesses find they lack the level of information needed to effectively target energy saving initiatives. Without accurate information on when and where energy is being used how do you know which areas to target or what effect any energy saving initiative is having?

A Solution to the Problem Monitoring energy consumption with a Prodigy system provides you with accurate real time information, data analysis and reporting all in one package. Prodigy continuously monitors supply lines logging demand data onto a PC in real time. Any number or type of supply can be monitored including electricity, gas, water, steam, air or effluent. Readouts of supply line demand are shown on screen with a graphical overview of the site or process layout provided if required. Systems can be networked to enable remote access across a site or multi-site systems to be controlled from a central location.

Analysis & Reporting Built in trending facilities allow fast analysis of current or historical energy demand. Single or multiple supplies can be trended with the capability to overlay trends for comparison. Trending consumption over any time period such as a shift, day, week, month year etc. is easy and can quickly highlight usage patterns that might not otherwise be identified. If there is a "spike" or anomaly in consumption you can "zoom in" to reveal the exact time, down to one second, that it occurred. Long term changes in consumption can show clearly when supply data is trended over extended time periods. Monitoring supply lines by area or process allows a detailed knowledge of site wide consumption to be built up. Management reports of total, minimum maximum and mean consumption on each supply can be produced automatically or on demand as required.

Alarm Capability Any supply can be monitored for up to 4 alarm levels, low, high, extra low and extra high. Alarms are displayed on the on-screen alarm banner and status display. Alarms can activate sounders & beacons or trigger messages to pagers or mobile phones. Alarm occurrence, acceptance and reversion to normal state is recorded to disk to provide historical alarm reports. Any trend, report or alarm history can be printed out on any suitable printer.

Tariff Demand Management Energy supplier tariffs can require careful management of demand to ensure you are paying the lowest price as suppliers charge more during high demand periods. Smoothing power usage and reducing your peak demand can allow you to negotiate lower prices. If your demand peaks into a higher tariff band, even for a short period, this can increase the overall price, not just for the period of high demand.

Energy monitoring can be used to keep demand within tariff limits. By analysing demand from each process or area, changes in operation can often be made to smooth peaks in consumption.

For example, it may be worth staggering some processes or redistributing equipment between supplies. Alarms can be used to alert when demand starts to peak so that pre-emptive action can be taken to stop demand going into a higher tariff level.

Energy Monitoring

Energy Monitoring

Energy Monitoring “Instant" Savings Experience has shown that system users can often gain an "instant" saving just by identifying changes needed in their operating procedures. The following are real examples: A monitoring system supplied to a food manufacturing company highlighted that demand from one of three main compressors was higher than it should have been. Investigation found that the cause was a fault on the compressor, which when rectified resulted in a 30% reduction in electricity consumption.

A manufacturing company knew that at weekends, when there was no production, demand was much higher than expected. Hourly total consumption figures provided by their electricity supplier showed energy usage running at 70% of weekdays. Once the Prodigy system was installed it was possible to track the problem to specific areas of the plant where equipment was not being powered down over the weekend period.

For several years a company night watchman had the task of switching on process heating equipment ready for the arrival of the day shift. Using Prodigy to analyse demand showed that large amounts of energy were being wasted because equipment was being switched on too early.

By using the system trending the optimum time to switch on the equipment was quickly calculated. This gave immediate and significant savings.

A standard Prodigy energy monitoring system is available that will cover the needs of most users.

Designed to monitor up to ten electricity power supply lines it can be expanded to monitor any number or type of supply.

Benefits ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Faster, easier targeting of optimum areas for energy saving initiatives Shows the on going effects of energy saving initiatives Provides information on energy saved when claiming Climate Change rebates Enables cross checking of suppliers' meters and invoices Short pay back period (ROI) Save money by keeping demand within lower cost tariff bands Save time with fast and easy analysis and reporting Stops wasted capital investment based on false assumptions

Features ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Provides accurate information on energy usage Comparison by area and or process highlights areas best suited for energy saving initiatives Data trending enables fast analysis of energy consumption and highlighting Status display shows demand in real-time Can be used to monitor electricity, water, gas, steam. air, effluents etc.

Management reports can be printed automatically or on demand Four levels of alarm can be set on each monitored supply Alarm occurrence, acceptance & reversion are recorded to provide historical alarm reports Systems have user security with password protection

Energy Monitoring