Achieve Sustainability Goals through Automated Demand Management

摘要

Many companies now incorporate sustainability goals into their core corporate objectives. After addressing efficiency, typically by upgrading lighting or installing VFDs, industrial facilities are seeking other ways to reduce utility spend, without impacting production throughput. Electrical energy costs have long been taken as a given; electricity is viewed as a fixed input to the manufacturing process, which can't be controlled or managed without negatively impacting production. While large energy efficiency gains may be difficult to achieve without an overhaul of a manufacturing process or upgrading equipment, reducing peak electrical demand, which accounts for a significant portion of the overall industrial electric bill, is possible with a supervisory energy management system. This presentation will discuss the benefits of automating the facility's use of energy, specifically electrical demand, to reduce peak demand charges, enabling automated demand response participation and reacting to real time pricing changes. A demand management system allows the real-time use and price of energy and demand to be a factor in production decisions, enabling a facility to control their energy costs. A successful demand management system must be designed to leverage and extend the capabilities of existing automation infrastructure within a facility. The system must integrate with existing systems in a such a way that there is minimal or no impact to production throughput and no compromising of product quality or safety.