Identify and achieve potential energy savings

Paul Boughton

Manufacturing companies are continually confronted with the challenge of saving resources and reducing consumption in order to effectively optimise their energy budget.

The zenon Energy Data Management System that COPA-DATA is introducing provides a new solution package for energy data management, which will help companies to introduce and implement productive energy management.

Some of the typical energy sources in industrial manufacturing are electricity, water, (compressed) air, gas and steam. In addition to the obvious energy consumers in a production process there are ‘hidden’ devices that also use energy. These can have a negative effect on the cost of running a plant and environmental progression.

Thomas Lehrer, Technical Product Manager at COPA-DATA, explains: "Targeted data logging and evaluation is essential in order to identify the biggest energy consumers in a system and at the same time achieve the most saving potential in production. The data that was traditionally recorded in Excel tables with significant time expenditure can now be more rapidly and simply collected using modern automation software. An effective energy data management system minimises error rates, whilst also enabling benchmarking across equipment or even organisations. Energy managers can use EDMS data to undertake the necessary changes to step up their production and become more energy efficient. With our new zenon Energy Data Management System we would especially like to support energy-intensive manufacturing companies to identify potential savings, reduce their consumption and, in turn, their ecological footprint and costs.”

The zenon Energy Data Management System fulfils the necessary requirements for comprehensive energy management. The system can be effortlessly integrated into existing infrastructures and can centrally read, gather and process large amounts of data from various sources if required. It is also possible to merge historical data and real time data from heterogeneous infrastructures or distributed production sites.

Graphically appealing reports, such as Historian trend, archive aggregation, trend per equipment group, cost distribution per variable or duration curve for equipment groups, show important energy performance indicators and provide a necessary overview. People on different levels – from top management and plant managers to machine operators or maintenance engineers – can access current analyses at any time.

The zenon Energy Data Management System also conforms to the defined requirements of the TÜV SÜD Certified Energy Data Management standard. The software thereby fulfils important criteria for the international energy standard ISO 50001 and enables the end user to gain a certification.

COPA-DATA CEO, Thomas Punzenberger, commenting on the importance of this certification, said: "Governments in Europe and USA have worked intensively on national energy management programs in recent years to put companies under increasing pressure to optimise their energy management. Most of these programs include clearly defined requirements for ISO 50001. In many countries the appropriate measures and actions are rewarded with tax remuneration. However, if companies neglect defined criteria, their obligation to report, or if they do not undertake regular audits, they should expect to pay fines. Most programs, like the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS), will already take effect this year. We wanted the zenon Energy Data Management System to place us one step ahead and let us provide companies with the necessary tools for energy management in due time."

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