Everything you need to know about energy optimisation in manufacturing

Between rising costs, the global drive for sustainability and the constant need to maximize efficiency to achieve competitive advantage, energy usage is a critical priority for the manufacturing sector.

While quick-win opportunities are often easy to identify, the ongoing process of energy optimization is complex and intensive. With the right technology, manufacturing organizations can drive efficiencies that go way beyond low-hanging fruit, capturing cost savings, increasing profitability and speeding their path towards net zero emissions.

In this post, we’ll delve into the key aspects of energy optimization in manufacturing, including the pivotal strategies and technologies driving efficiency in industrial operations.

Renewable energy integration

The cost of energy-intensive manufacturing processes can be eased by introducing on-site renewable energy technologies.

By offsetting consumption during peak times, solar, wind or battery storage technology can help to reduce energy usage and reduce reliance on fossil fuels, reducing the carbon emissions of manufacturing operations and supporting sustainability goals.

Renewable technologies can also provide the opportunity to take advantage of savings using demand-side response, storing power from solar or wind in batteries and using them to reduce usage from the grid during peak times when rates are higher.

As market energy rates increase, the pay-off time for renewables is shorter than ever. However, proving the ROI of investment into renewable technologies is still key. With an energy management system (EMS), it’s possible to track energy consumed from the grid and from renewables, demonstrating the impact of existing technologies whilst evidencing the potential for further investment.

Energy-efficient technologies

Implementing energy-efficient technologies across manufacturing operations can drive significant energy savings. Here are just a few potential areas to consider:

Variable speed drives (VSDs): These drives control the speed of motors used in fans, pumps and other equipment, reducing energy consumption by adjusting the motor speed to match the required load.

Energy-efficient motors: High-efficiency motors consume less energy than standard motors by minimizing electrical and mechanical losses.

Compressed air system optimization: Optimizing compressed air systems by identifying and repairing leaks, using appropriate pipe sizing and installing air receivers can significantly reduce energy consumption.

Waste heat recovery systems: These systems capture and reuse the heat generated from industrial processes, such as furnaces or kilns, to preheat water or generate steam, reducing the need for additional fuel.

Energy management systems (EMS): EMS monitor and control various energy-consuming systems, such as lighting, HVAC and production equipment to optimize energy usage and reduce waste.

LED lighting: Replacing traditional lighting with energy-efficient LED lighting can significantly reduce energy consumption in manufacturing facilities.

Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) systems: CHP systems generate electricity and usable heat simultaneously from a single fuel source, increasing overall energy efficiency.

Process optimization: Analyzing and optimizing manufacturing processes can lead to energy savings by identifying and eliminating inefficiencies, reducing material waste and improving equipment utilization.

Building envelope improvements: Improving insulation, sealing air leaks and installing energy-efficient windows and doors can reduce the energy required for heating and cooling in manufacturing facilities.

Data analytics and predictive maintenance

Installing more energy efficient technologies and reducing the demand for energy from the grid by investing in renewables can both help to reduce energy usage. However, they are only part of the picture. To drive ongoing improvements in energy efficiency, it’s necessary to develop a deep understanding of your facilities’ energy usage trends, drawing out insights to drive ever more granular efficiencies, not only by reducing current usage but by spotting increases as a result of malfunctioning equipment as early as possible.

Data analytics and predictive maintenance driven by an energy management software solution can play a significant role in helping the manufacturing industry reduce energy consumption:

Energy usage analysis

Energy usage data analysis can provide insights to fuel targeted actions to optimize energy consumption.

Manufacturing facilities combine hundreds or even thousands of different processes, pieces of equipment or facilities, each of which contribute in their own unique way to overall energy costs.

Picking apart the data to understand the individual energy consumption trend of a specific process or machine is an in-depth process, but can identify areas of high usage, wastage or inefficiencies which cumulatively can add up to huge savings.

This process requires a granular approach to measurement, with IoT sensors and sub-metering to accurately break down energy usage across your facility, as well as highly customizable reporting and analytics to make sense of complex usage data trends and draw out key insights.

Process optimization

As well as top-level energy usage, it’s possible to track a wide range of other factors which contribute to the energy efficiency of different processes.

Parameters such as temperature, pressure, humidity and flow rates can all impact on energy usage levels and monitoring and analyzing these can identify opportunities for optimization, reducing energy consumption while maintaining or improving product quality or throughput.

Energy forecasting

As well as taking action based on historic usage trends, manufacturing organizations need to forecast future demand as well.

By taking into account historic data and cross-referencing this with information such as production schedules and weather forecasts, it’s possible to identify potential high-usage periods and offset these. For example, if predictive data suggests that a high-usage period is likely in future, the cost of this can be reduced by shifting energy-intensive processes to off-peak hours or using energy storage systems to “bank” renewable or off-peak energy for later usage.

Real-time monitoring and control

Data analytics and predictive maintenance systems can provide real-time monitoring and control of energy-consuming systems like HVAC, lighting and production equipment.

By monitoring important usage parameters, energy management systems can flag when usage is higher than anticipated, allowing teams to make dynamic adjustments and real-time optimizations to cut waste and improve overall energy efficiency.

Predictive maintenance strategies

Predictive maintenance leverages data analytics and machine learning to monitor equipment performance and predict potential failures or maintenance needs. This can not only minimize production downtime – it can reduce unnecessary energy consumption too.

By identifying the signs of impending equipment issues, manufacturers can ensure that their equipment is operating at the highest possible levels of efficiency by implementing fixes before performance degrades significantly and energy usage increases.

Predictive maintenance also allows maintenance to be scheduled at optimal times (for example, when energy costs are highest), reducing unplanned downtime as well as energy wastage.

Benchmarking and continuous improvement

By analyzing energy consumption data across different facilities or production lines, manufacturers can benchmark and compare performance, as well as identifying best practice. This higher level of visibility allows teams to share learnings, implement continuous improvement strategies and drive energy efficiency across the organization.

Employee engagement and training

With so many opportunities to make energy efficiency savings, it’s vital that a wide range of stakeholders are aware and educated on energy management.

A key element of engagement is ensuring that teams have access to the data they need to identify efficiencies and make positive change. For companies using an EMS, it’s important to ensure that access is provided to the right people and that they are able to easily access the key data points they require via customized dashboards.

Achieving this means developing KPI’s that are relevant to your organization. For example, rather than showing energy usage as a total figure, breaking it down into Kwh per unit produced can give a more easily understandable and applicable figure. As a further step forward, showing the potential financial outcome of savings by calculating how many products would have to be sold to achieve the same financial outcome can help teams to develop a concrete understanding of the impact their energy savings efforts can have.

The goal is to create a culture of sustainability and energy consciousness, with a commitment to energy efficiency embedded in policies and communications from leadership to the factory floor. From awareness campaigns and visible dashboards through to knowledge sharing and showcasing of successful projects, it’s vital that teams are celebrated and rewarded for their contributions towards energy efficiency.

Supply chain optimization

The energy cost and carbon footprint of a manufacturing process extends way beyond the boundaries of a manufacturing facility.

By tracking and analyzing energy consumption across every aspect of the supply chain, it’s possible to build a comprehensive picture of energy usage and identify even more opportunities for energy and cost savings.

The same principles we’ve already discussed apply at every stage of production and distribution and the process of implementing accurate measurement, analyzing data and creating change is exactly the same. Expanding the scope of your EMS to cover areas such as transportation, warehousing and industrial property management can help you to build a complete picture of your energy usage, allowing you to expand approaches such as demand forecasting and load management to distribution and storage, integrate renewables into other areas of your business and maintain comprehensive real-time monitoring and control over all aspects of your business.