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In addition to the price paid for energy it is equally important that your company minimises energy wastage.
The Climate Change Levy, introduced in April 2001, is based upon your company's actual usage and is now adding between 10-15% onto your energy bills. Reduction in energy usage is the only guaranteed method of sustaining low energy bills into the future. Businesses can no longer afford to waste such a vital resource.
The introduction of Basic Energy Management is not expensive, nor does it necessarily require any capital investment. The best gains in efficiency usually come from the simplest measures. Good housekeeping is the key to effective energy management.
URS can, on your behalf, introduce simple, low cost, but effective measures to enable energy usage to be measured, monitored, controlled and reduced for as little as £40 per month.
Measures include:
- Monthly bill checking
- Equating energy usage to production (Or other meaningful references for non-manufacturing companies)
- Implementing and evaluating half-hourly consumption data
- Site surveys
- Monitoring individual items of plant
- Metering and sub-metering installation
- Power Factor surveys
- Staff awareness training
Half-hourly consumption data analysis
URS can arrange for the provision of half-hourly consumption data for your premises. This enables a visual overview of how energy is being utilised at half-hourly intervals throughout each day. Energy wastage and mis-use of equipment can be detected at a glance enabling corrective action.
Identifying a single kilowatt of waste could save your business over £400 per year.
The following case history, although ficticious, is typical of the benefits that can be obtained by energy consumption profile analysis.
Case History - Engineering company saves over £3,900 p.a.
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The instigation of a half-hourly consumption data survey highlighted that during periods of non-production a minimum consumption of 24 kilowatts was being consumed.
Prompting a site survey it was found that there were a number of significant leaks in the sites compressed air pipe-work, forcing the compressors to work around the clock to maintain the required working pressure. The leaks were promptly sealed at a cost of only £400.
A second survey following the repair revealed that the sites kilowatt demand had reduced by 15 kilowatts. This saved the company over 130,000 kilowatt-hours per annum, resulting in a financial saving of £3,900.
The client would have been oblivious to such wastage unless the survey had been undertaken.
Energy Consumption v Productivity
Monitoring energy usage in isolation is of little value. Energy consumption needs to be evaluated alongside a meaningful reference e.g. manufacturing output in tonnes, or numbers of standard components etc.
URS can help your business to regularly monitor the relationship between energy use and productivity. Once optimum efficiency levels have been identified URS can help to ensure that these levels are consistently achieved, alerting you when anomalies occur.
The example below highlights the improvements in efficiency that can be achieved by analysing such relationships.
Example - Aluminium Melting Company
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In this example, an aluminium foundry analysed their electricity consumption against the total tonnage of molten aluminium produced on a monthly basis. The results showed that consumption per tonne was far higher than published industry figures.
Following an investigation the cause was found to be a combination of poor thermal insulation of the furnaces and in the way the furnace controllers operated the furnaces.
Increasing the thermal insulation around each furnace and educating the operators to ensure that lids were used whilst molten metal was being held overnight made improvements of around 24%.
Continuing the analysis ensures that the efficiency gains made are sustained each month.
| For more information on Energy Management from only £40 per month click here |