Power peaks occur when there is a high load on the electricity grid, which makes it even more expensive for the electricity companies to deliver electricity and thus also more expensive for the consumer.
That the cost of energy is one of the absolute highest costs when it comes to production is hardly news. And even if it seems quite simple and as if you have full control over your machinery and your production, there are small parameters that can affect a lot when it comes to energy consumption. What affects your energy consumption and how can they affect your costs and production? In this article you will get the answers to these questions.
Power peaks occur when there is a high load on the electricity grid, which makes it even more expensive for the electricity companies to deliver electricity and thus also more expensive for the consumer. By working smart with your own power output, you can lower your own subscription costs and help reduce the overall impact on the electricity grid.
A good example of when power peaks often occur is when it is extremely cold here in Sweden. All of a sudden, power output and energy consumption rise throughout the country. The impact on the electricity grid will be large and the electricity companies are often forced to buy expensive electricity from other suppliers in order to keep electricity in the grid. The electricity that is purchased is often less green and comes from fossil-based fuels.
What we want to achieve by working with energy optimization is, among other things, to reduce the total power output from a facility. If we do it in a good way, this in turn means that the costs at power peaks will be lower. Energy optimization is about doing the most possible with the energy that comes in. It is therefore about making sure that every machine and every small lamp is used as efficiently as possible.
Why should the office be lit after 17pm, if there is no staff there anyway? Or why is machine A used for all production, when on Wednesdays it would have been enough to run machine B, which uses 10% less energy? These are the kinds of questions you ask yourself when optimizing energy. It is quite easy to see the effect that such efforts have once power peaks occur. 10% savings on an annual basis, can suddenly become 50% for a few days, because the electricity price sharply rises.
By studying your energy mapping, you can identify your own power peaks. You can analyze and read out patterns. The more data you have available, the more certain conclusions you can draw. What are the possibilities to reduce the power peaks you see?
You can often reduce your power peaks by being foresight. Power peaks rarely come as a total surprise, but usually these are linked to increased production, etc. By clearly identifying one's power peaks, one can also do something about them.
This is extremely important to reduce your own energy costs. A business's subscription costs can be radically reduced if you can demonstrate an even and stable power draw. If a business can be prepared for the cold winter months and know how this affects the power draw in the facility, it can also work proactively to curb the increase in power draw during that period.
One of the biggest reasons and benefits of optimize energy is about reducing the use of energy. This can be done in many ways, where it mainly involves understanding which machines draw the most power and why. If you are not aware of where and when your machines draw energy, you can easily be surprised when you realize how much energy you waste outside of your production.
It can be anything from machines that are only used for short periods of time in production, but are still on all day, or machines that are in the classic "standby" mode. By measuring and getting a handle on when your machines are used and what role they have in the production chain, you can also get clearer information about when it is possible to switch off the machines and thus also save money and efficiency.
Perhaps it is the case that you have two similar machines with the same functions in the production chain. They can do the same job, but depending on where they are in the chain, they can perform differently, giving you completely different results and costs. The most common thought when it comes to machines is that you assume that an older person machine is the one that is most thirsty for energy, but this is not always the case.
Perhaps it is the case that one machine contains other components, which makes it more suitable for a certain step in your production. By seeing and understanding each machine's individual needs and performance, you can give them the right conditions to do a really good job.
By monitoring the power draw, you can not only match your subscription against your actual usage, but also avoid unnecessary power peaks as they approach. By avoiding fines, unforeseen downtime and an excessively high subscription, you can easily earn the money it costs to install a system that measures electricity use in your production. An investment well worth to ensure available power capacity to production.
SenseNode offers an end-to-end solution for industry and a platform to take the digitization of your business to the next level. Here, customers get what is called Industry 4.0. By being able to work with both condition monitoring and energy optimization in one and the same platform, you can reduce your own power peaks in a very efficient way.
Companies save money in daily operations by working with SenseNode. The solution also functions in many ways as insurance against unexpected downtime in production. Condition monitoring opens up opportunities to control operations in a way that was not possible before. Smart alarms can be set that indicate whether a trend should be paid attention to. Unnecessary costs linked to downtime can be avoided and power peaks thus reduced.
The subscription costs for the business will be reduced as the consumer gets a more even and predictable power withdrawal from the network. By working with the energy optimization that SenseNode offers, you can also ensure that the own impact of large power peaks on the network can be reduced. For example, on cold winter days when the entire network suddenly gets an extreme load. Are you curious about what we at SenseNode can do for you and your company? Do not hesitate to contact us here.
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