With new standards and aggressive initiatives more tightly regulating energy management and sustainability reporting, industry is now moving at pace towards digitalization and the real-time data-driven energy management solutions it brings.
Here, Fabio Monachesi, Global Leader of Energy Management, for ABB Electrification, explores the importance of energy management, its key benefits and how organizations can begin their journey towards visualizing their energy consumption.
With a high number of electrical assets and an around the clock requirement for energy, the industrial sector is the most valuable within the global energy management systems market. Valued at an estimated USD 12.3 billion in 2021, this sector is expected to grow significantly between now and 2030, with experts forecasting a rise to USD 17.4 billion within that nine-year period.1
Defining energy management
Some consider the term ‘energy management’ to be a buzzword that summarizes the competences required to understand energy flows and perform actions for their improvement. If we examine this popular term in more detail, it is often broken down into smaller, inter-linked functions that form a critical part of the digital transformation journey.
In other words, to successfully implement a digital transformation by steps, energy management is of the utmost importance. With that in mind, let us examine the five functions that ABB constitute essential best practice for energy management. By following these five steps, organizations can begin their journey towards efficient energy management practices:
Stage 1: Detect
In the first stage, facility owners and managers use data from their utility bills as well as available building information to benchmark and virtually disaggregate the energy costs to identify areas of excess energy consumption. To do this effectively a large dataset and availability of AI algorithms are helpful.
Stage 2: Monitoring
With a benchmark in place, facility owners and managers can leverage device connectivity to visualize real time and historic energy data of key assets to build a clearer picture of the issues that need resolving.
Products, such as circuit breakers, meters, relays, EV-chargers, inverters and IoT sensors all connected to an on-site connectivity infrastructure or dashboard with widgets play an important part in this process.
Stage 3: Analyze
Using the data gathered in the second stage, it is now possible to create output reports based on historical data to analyze KPIs and advise saving actions that are aligned with the benchmark targets. Energy forecasting analytics can make this stage easier and more accurate.
Stage 4: Optimize
This stage defines and visualizes asset setpoint scheduling to optimize a target KPI. For this, smart connected products such as power quality converters, uninterrupted power suppliers (UPS), transfer switching and advanced relays feeding into an optimization engine can help those charged with delivering energy reductions to realize improved outcomes.
Stage 5: Control
With energy management systems and processes in place, all that is left to do is to control and carefully change the asset setpoint for energy efficiency or service continuity strategies. To help, facility managers should consider pre-engineered reference architectures with Edge controllers and smart connected products, plus on-site distribution energy resources such as microgrids, BESS and renewable technologies.
Key benefits of energy management
The need to manage and lower energy usage across the industrial landscape is now more regulated than ever before and forms the basis for IEC 60364-8-1 and ISO 50001 for Energy Management Systems – Requirements with Guidance for Use.
It goes without saying therefore that one of the key benefits to energy management is being compliant and avoiding the penalties associated with not meeting the latest regional or international standards.
That said, energy management is something that industrial facilities should embrace, not because they are forced to, but because they are willing to hold themselves accountable for their own carbon footprint.
Doing so is usually much simpler than anticipated with most market-leading energy management systems offering low engineering and the ability to commission the system in just one day.
Often, the key benefits of energy management are defined under these headings:
Sustainability
Energy management processes can help industrial facilities to reduce CO2 emissions and unlock further energy savings above and beyond those that are obvious without the use of digitalization and data monitoring. These savings can lead to ISO 50001 and LEED certification or other local ones for green buildings.
OPEX Savings
Data insights help with the forecasting of energy usage, increasing efficiency by 30 percent and reducing costs with a potential payback of less than three years for market leading solutions such as the ABB AbilityTM Energy Manager.
Ready to use
Energy Management Systems (EMS) are mostly available as Software-as-a-Service, so they do not need specific engineering and customization. Instead, they can be put in place by few clicks from a web-based marketplace. Starting from own metering points, software-based platforms are configured and actionable in as little as one day.
Where to start
For organizations wanting to take the first steps towards energy management, for both single and multi-site facilities, should be a concise assessment of energy usage. Typically, facility managers involve energy service companies (ESCOs) to have audits and start creating actionable reports. Enlisting the support of an expert service provider early on in the process can really pay dividends when it comes to maximizing energy management as quickly as possible. Usually, a consultant will request as much historical site data as possible, so gathering information is the right place to start, using the utility bills of the facility, building information systems and any on field sensors.
To find out more about how ABB can support the roll out of your energy management initiative, visit https://new.abb.com/about/our-businesses/electrification/abb-ability/energy-and-asset-manager/abb-ability-energy-manager