More than ever, business owners and operators of factories and industrial plant need to know that their facility is optimised in terms of electrical energy consumption, not only to mitigate the rocketing cost of electricity, but also to ensure efficient machinery operations against a backdrop of continuous but irregular loadshedding outages.
Iritron, an automation and control systems integration specialist, advises business owners to conduct an energy study to reveal the health and efficiency of a plant’s electrical system. Based on this study, recommendations can be made for improvement to the reticulation and the energy-hungry machinery, which can result in substantial cost savings while identifying potential safety issues and lack of compliance.
Plant layout, usage, equipment and personnel changes can over the years result in an industrial plant’s electrical diagrams no longer accurately reflecting the ‘as built’ installation. Distribution boards and electrical equipment may not be correctly labelled, and protection gradings may be incorrect due to changes over the years. Apart from the potential danger and the non-compliance that outdated drawings create, it also makes energy studies almost impossible. Therefore, prior to embarking on an energy study, it is recommended that this situation be rectified. With accurate documentation, it will be much quicker and easier for Iritron’s technicians to start investigating and analysing the energy consumption in different plant areas, and provide recommendations for improvement.
Iritron’s energy study requires the installation of measurement equipment such as Schneider Electric’s power meters, for example the PowerLogic&bsp;PM5320R with Ethernet interface and modbus TCP/IP protocol. This power meter provides a host of critical measurements, including:
• Instantaneous values of current, voltage, frequency and real, reactive and apparent power and power factor.
• Accumulated active, reactive and apparent energy.
• Power quality measurements including total harmonic distortion and total demand distortion.
• Data logging of min/max of instantaneous values, plus phase identification.
Once the granularity of the measurements has been determined, the energy meters can easily be installed in a number of distribution boards on the plant site to allow the measurements of specific areas and equipment. The energy meter measurements can be historised, and the data provides the ability to analyse and pinpoint exactly what is happening in the plant at any given time.
The energy study takes into consideration and analyses the energy mix that is present in the facility, be it solar, generator or utility power. Once all the data is compiled, Iritron engineers conduct detailed and complex analyses to identify areas of potential savings. This includes the analysis of the electrical account from the service provider, as it is important to understand the tariff structures and rates. Hidden in the account information are several areas where costs can be saved through the implementation of monitoring, automation and control.
The final step is to implement the cost saving strategy, which can include any number of control measures. These include automated controls to reduce energy cost, power factor correction, maximum demand control, peak shaving, and working around the peak tariff periods. All these are potential areas of saving and need to be considered together with all the data from the energy measurements in order to develop and implement a successful energy optimisation plan.
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