The power of energy data in manufacturing

As digital technology continues to improve, manufacturers will have the opportunity to shift how they work, to take advantage of the power of data and AI. Some are calling this the fourth industrial revolution. It’s predicted that smart factories will emerge as winners as they can adapt quickly and become more energy efficient. 

Helping any factory becoming a smart factory

GridDuck’s technology intelligently monitors hundreds of appliances in real time, allowing our customers to set rules and routines, tweak their operations, or automate certain functions. In short, we can help turn a factory into a smart factory. Smart factories use data and advanced technology to make decisions that allow them to run their businesses more efficiently, saving energy, avoiding waste, and ultimately saving money. Good energy management can even give a business a competitive advantage. 

Powerful data is particularly useful in manufacturing, a sector that can consume vast amounts of energy. According to the ONS UK Energy Brief, UK industry accounted for 16% of the country’s total energy use in 2019. This equates to 82 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, the energy costs of manufacturing a food or drink product can be as much as 20%. The key to reducing energy-related costs is to understand how it’s being consumed, to what extent and when. In the UK, the food and drink industry alone employs over 440,000 people, with a turnover of £104bn in 2019. That accounts for 20% of total UK manufacturing. Potentially large sums of money are being wasted unnecessarily. Moreover, the less energy efficient you are, the higher your carbon emissions are likely to be. 

GridDuck recently visited a factory in Sheffield that specialises in manufacturing coils for large motors and generators. They asked us if we could track the energy consumption of their production machines using the digital technology we have developed. How might this help their operations be better streamlined and work more efficiently? 

GridDuck has identified several benefits for manufacturers who would like to use intelligent technology to better track the energy being used on the factory floor and as part of day-to-day operations. 

Here are our top five tips for good energy management: 

1) Save energy by switching things off when not needed. It sounds obvious, but this is not just about switching off the lights. When you have lots of machines, processes and shifts, switching things off can require deeper analysis. For the best results, you need to know when something is on and, simultaneously, that it doesn’t have to be. 

We worked with one drinks business in London to see how we could help them reduce carbon emissions and their energy use. After monitoring the consumption around the bar, they could see they were using a lot of energy outside of their opening hours. By utilising the scheduling function of our system, they were able to automate their drinks fridges and ice machines to switch on and off when not needed. This led to an energy saving of nearly 30%, and a payback of just under a year.

In factories, good ventilation systems are essential, but it might not be necessary to ventilate a large space when employees are not there. Additional costs are incurred from replacing or heating the treated air. One thing to consider is whether you could automate the process of switching ventilation systems off through a dashboard, and controlling when they come on. 

You can set simple and flexible time-switch rules for lights, heaters, water heaters, and other appliances with our interface. 

2) Redirect, recycle or reduce heat. The manufacturing process can generate a great deal of heat that rises to the top of a building. By fitting destratification fans, you can redirect the heat to the factory floor, saving money on heating costs. 

Up to 90% of the heat generated by an air compressor can be used to heat water or air. Consider whether you could use it to heat a space on your premises, or if you might be able to place a compressor in a warehouse to keep it less humid. 

Heating was a large portion of one strawberry farm’s costs and they wanted to know why. GridDuck tracked electricity consumption in staff caravans with electric heaters. We installed wireless sensors in the caravans, providing us with a clear picture of how much electricity was being wasted during the day. We helped the farm make savings of 56% just by tracking the electric heating in caravans. 

GridDuck time-switch automation interface

3) Save energy by downsizing some machines. As we’ve just observed, a lot of energy is wasted from heating and cooling spaces. Some engineers like to overspec appliances, such as those used to cool things. This means that other appliances working in tandem also have to be oversized, leading to more and more energy waste. 

GridDuck visited an organic apple farm in Hereford. They were using two cold stores of different sizes, one smaller and one larger. Using the data from our monitoring system, they were able to see that both cold stores were consuming the same amount of energy. The farm was able to scale down the refrigeration/cooling unit of the smaller one to start saving money. 

4) Save energy by using data to decide whether to keep machines running between processes, shifts or even over the weekend. Many of GridDuck’s customers want to know what is more energy-efficient: keeping a machine on standby, for example, or switching it off entirely and turning it back on when it’s needed. It’s hard to give a definitive answer, as there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. What we do give our customers is the data they need to make the decisions that work best for them. 

We work across sectors, from hospitality and agriculture to manufacturing. Whatever sector you’re in, there’s a fairly high chance that energy is being consumed even when no production is running. The Carbon Trust estimates that most businesses in the UK can reduce their energy by 10 to 40% but this can be more. Start by setting a realistic target for bringing your energy down. Ask yourself, “What can be turned off or down when the process is idle?” Additionally, you can save on machine and labour costs by reorganising shifts to reduce a machine’s idle times.

Monitoring your consumption will help you pinpoint the best way of achieving your energy goals and save money. It’s important to remember that while some businesses consider energy bills fixed costs, they don’t have to be. 

5) Save on maintenance costs by using energy data for predictive maintenance. Machine downtime will cost money. You can get ahead of breakdowns and maintenance by checking the efficiency of your machines and appliances. It’s much easier to keep track if you’ve installed an intelligent system that can spot potential problems and inefficiencies. 

Predictive maintenance has the advantage of being preventive - you only fix issues as they arise, not as a result of checking everything at intervals. A Deloitte study concluded that, on average, predictive maintenance can increase productivity by 25%, reduce breakdowns by 70% and lower maintenance costs by 25%. This will optimise and increase the lifespan of your equipment. 

Any system under stress will be costing you money in inefficiency and can suddenly break down, incurring expensive labour costs. Motor systems, for instance, can consume huge amounts of energy and often aren’t running at an optimal level. Variable speed drives (VSDs) will control the speed of motors, fans and pumps. They can be used to significantly reduce the amount of energy used in the manufacturing process. 

The Carbon Trust’s manufacturing guide estimates that reducing a motor’s speed by 20% with a VSD will result in a 50% drop in energy consumption.  

GridDuck’s interface can help you identify which of your appliances or machines are not working efficiently, giving you the insight you need to get ahead of the game before maintenance becomes necessary. 

Looking to the future: exploiting the potential of wireless  

In the UK, researchers and scientists are experimenting with how wireless technologies can be exploited by businesses. The 5G Factory for the Future in the North of England is a testbed for where 5G could have the biggest impact. One of the factory’s aims is to improve manufacturers’ understanding of how they could use the technology to keep “their businesses competitive and sustainable for the future”.

One of their tests involved using real-time process monitoring and control, similar to what we do at GridDuck. “By using the ultra-low latency of 5G connectivity we can deploy advanced AI technology to improve process precision and predictive maintenance strategies,” the researchers explained. “Initial analysis suggests a 15-25% reduction in the number of defects, amount of waste generated and machine downtime as a result. It's clear to see how improvements like these could translate into dramatic time and cost savings in the real world,” they concluded.  

Make your manufacturing smarter

As a manufacturer, you can easily retrofit our CT clamps into your distribution boards and around power cables. These wireless CT clamps allow you to easily view the energy consumption of any appliance or circuit, providing you with the data you need to make changes of benefit to your business. There’s no doubt that information is power, but it only has the power to transform or improve our lives when we apply what we’ve learned.

Want to discuss this blog post with us? Why not book a call with Miles.