In this article we explain how to optimize energy management in manufacturing in order to fullfill obligations and reduce costs. By December 5, 2019, pursuant to art. 8 of Leg. 102/2014, large companies and those with high energy consumption will have to fulfill the obligation of energy diagnosis. The first are companies that employ more than 250 employees, have an annual turnover of over 50 million euros or a balance sheet of over 43 million euros. Instead, energy-intensive companies are considered to meet the following criteria:
- consumption of at least 2.4 GWh of electricity in the reference year;
- actual cost of energy equal to at least 2% of the turnover;
- Ateco classification as a prevalent manufacturing activity.
In total, there are more than 6,900 Italian companies, of which 5,300 large companies and 1,600 energy-intensive. Regardless of legal obligations, those that belong to the manufacturingsector have been trying to implement efficiency and energy saving policies in recent years for greater profitability and high production sustainability. Goals that can be achieved through the implementation of monitoring and control tools capable of identifying wastes and by automating processes, especially on the maintenance side, which allow to minimize costs. It is no coincidence that we increasingly speak of smart manufacturing as a new frontier in which all company areas (production, logistics, maintenance, quality, safety, etc.) are interconnected through digital systems.
The energy audit in manufacturing
The energy audit, which is now mandatory for the companies indicated above and allows you to avoid the administrative penalties, which range from € 2,000 to € 40,000, must be done taking into account the following steps:
- collection of consumption and energy cost data per square meter of all utilities: electrical, thermal, refrigeration, water;
- identification of inefficiencies and dispersions calculated on average consumption parameters, for example with CuSum cards;
- proposal for interventions to improve the energy efficiency of the sites considered, both from the point of view of the envelope and with regard to the plants, with a preliminary technical-economic feasibility assessment.
ENEA has prepared specific guidelines for monitoring in the industrial sector for energy diagnoses. They further clarify the methods by which to carry out an accurate audit of energy consumption, dividing the general performance indicators of the plant by production process, auxiliary services and general Services. The intent is to be able to determine reliable benchmarks for the industrial sector. In addition to obtaining data, also reliable, connected to production in a specific reference period.
The path to energy efficiency
Manufacturing industries are now aware that the need for energy efficiency does not arise so much from reasons of regulatory compliance or from the fear of penalties resulting from an unexpected diagnosis. Getting a significant saving on consumption is the main way to gain a competitive advantage with an optimal use of resources. The audit phase, therefore, must be followed by energy modeling. In this way it is possible to trace the energy characterization curves. They describe with statistical reliability the expected behavior of the assets analyzed between the production process, auxiliary services and general services. Thus, energy consumption from fixed cost due becomes a quantity over which you have full control and awareness in real time. For this purpose, the methods and tools suitable for efficiency can be:
- redistribution of workloads according to the different tariff periods;
- implementation of automatic systems capable of modulating operating parameters according to seasonal activities and periods;
- adoption of a CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) that allows the reduction of maintenance costs and gives a constant picture of the sources of waste and inefficiency.
- installation of measuring points, possibly connected to the CMMS, which monitor most of the company’s energy consumption, if not the overall consumption range. The ENEA document mentioned above underlines: “In the subsequent diagnoses for the functional areas there must be dedicated meters, that is not so much a complete monitoring system dedicated to them but a “Monitoring strategy”which, through an appropriate coverage of instrumentation, control and management systems, ensures that the energy parameters relating to them can have increasing reliability with the progressive implementation of these systems».
If you want to learn more about energy management, visit our website and contact us.