Controls News 13
NE X T E X I T
Lean Energiemanagement
26
Focus issue:
With Saia® S-Energy
Introducing energy management in house
instead of «outsourcing»
Energy management should not be a closed case,
but rather a continuous process. Modern buildings
and industrial plants are flexible structures and are
subject to continuous change. Buildings are reno-
vated, rebuilt and extended. Machines and equip-
ment are extended, moved in house or taken out
of service. Here we sketch a rough picture of what
happens when «Totally Integrated» energy manage-
ment is introduced by the state. After a short while,
the original system no longer matches the opera-
tional reality and costly improvements are needed.
That’s unfortunate if you are then relying on exter-
nal specialists and are not yourself an active player.
The introduction and especially the maintenance of
a «Totally Integrated Power Management» is very
costly and requires careful planning with specific
objectives. And this at a time where neither is ex-
Lean energy monitoring and control
The basis for secure and economical energy
efficiency gains
Energy management can be implemented either way. There is a great temptation to
knock the issue on the head with a single, all-encompassing, all-powerful software
solution. Years of experience and expertise can be bought in to shorten the personal
learning curve. This current way of addressing energy management completely
contradicts lean thinking; a long-term, sustainable approach is very uncertain.
Why is that so?
Author: Peter Steib
perience and knowledge about the current situa-
tion available nor about the resulting goals. In the
absence of experience there is no guarantee of
success, to say nothing of the return on investment
(
ROI). Often, therefore, the projects fail, and never
become more than good intentions.
For those who understand energy management
within the context of «lean», the first step is to de-
velop an understanding of the situation. It is quickly
recognized that most operators of real estate and
industrial facilities already have the best experts in
energy consumption at their disposal – their own
operational personnel. People who interact daily
with machines and installations develop a feel for
the processes and know their weak spots very well.
What is missing is the quantification and visuali-
zation of energy consumption. For the process of
greater energy efficiency to become established,
companies have a need for a simple measurement
and visualization technique that can be applied and
mastered primarily by employees. Only when spe-
cific numbers are available, initiated measures can
be assessed and first successes may be recorded.
S-Energy from Saia-Burgess is an easy-to-use system
that fully corresponds to the above requirements. It
includes energy meters with an established tech-
nology, as well as control panels with evaluation
and analysis functions, which work without local
configuration and are ready to use immediately af-
ter turning on.
Thus equipped, the in-house electrician can install
the first electrical energy measurement and display
the consumption. After just a few days, feedback is
obtained and the measures implemented begin to
have an effect. Step by step, staff get to grips with
the equipment and find themselves on a learning
curve. It follows that by proceeding in this way, in-
vestment costs and risk are kept within acceptable
limits. Thanks to the great flexibility of S-Energy,
the system can at any time be adjusted, rebuilt or
extended using in-house resources and without
external help. S-Energy is ideal for continuous im-
provement and the ongoing extension of energy
management in controlled steps.
Putting all eggs in one
basket:
Investment without any
guarantee of success. A high
initial investment with an
even higher risk – en-
ergy management in one fell
swoop. Implementation and
adjustments during operation
require expensive experts.
Installation
Acquisition
Planning
t
Achieving goals
real effects
Costs
Total integrated
Energy Management
Risk
An ISO 50001 energy
management system can
be implemented without
grandiose and expensive
software solutions.
en1326
