Powering Up Efficiency: Strategies for Industrial Energy Management

Energy Efficiency measures have been a corner stone of manufacturing cost reductions for many years. However, it is still common to walk through a manufacturing site and identify at least 5 areas for energy, cost and carbon reductions. So why is this still the case?

If you are a plant manager, engineer, maintenance crew, or sustainability manager you have likely seen numerous attempts to improve energy efficiency and encountered one (or more) of the following barriers:

·        Company made some initial progress and then efforts faded into the background,

·        Management believe that efficiency has been “addressed” or “completed”,

·        Lack of internal resources or capability,

·        Upfront capital limitations and constraints,

·        Confusion from supplier led product solutions,

·        Internal resistance to change or competing priorities,

Overcoming these barriers requires a concerted effort involving leadership commitment, stakeholder engagement, financial incentives, and supportive policies and regulations. How can you begin or reinvigorate your companies’ energy efficiency success?

Quick Wins

At Green Energy & Carbon Management, we regularly encourage the uptake of small, easy to implement activities that have immediate benefits to the bottom line. These might include:

Thermal Insulation

Steam boiler and thermal heating systems are integral to the production process yet often overlooked for basic efficiency improvements.

Most system do have existing insulation on the pipe runs, but when was the last time you paused and looked at the main isolation valves, flanges, or the piping in the roofspace?

The insulation of these remaining areas has very attractive simple paybacks (usually less than 1.5 years). It is not intrusive to manufacturing processes and can be scoped or staged to match any budget.

Compressed Air Leaks

The fourth utility, often hidden away in the hot corner behind the boiler. Atmospheric air is drawn in, compressed, piped to the point of use and released back to the atmosphere in hundreds of individual air leaks……

Every compressed air system will have leaks, but are they limited to an acceptable cost?

Has your business identified the root cause of common air leaks and transitioned to leak resistant approaches?

If not, then it is time to pull out the acoustic imager and get busy!

GECM typically encounter leak rates of more than 25% of the compressor capacity. We recommend limiting this to below 10% (below this is often commercially unattractive).

Steam Trap Replacements

How frequently does your plant conduct steam trap inspections?

After the last inspection, were all the failed traps replaced?

Did that upside down float trap get installed upside down again? (yes – we see this regularly)

A single failed steam trap can easily waste over $4000 pa of gas, yet only costs $600 in parts to repair.  

Identifying which of your 20, 50, or 100+ steam traps have failed is the first step to improving the overall system efficiency of your thermal plant.  

Capitalise on Success

The quick win activities not only provide cost effective, actionable energy savings, but can be leveraged to increase management and stakeholder engagement.

The energy, cost and carbon savings from the quick win activities may only be an incremental improvement in an ocean of energy costs, however they can be the gateway to unlocking resources and appetite for large more complex projects.

Self – Sustaining Efficiency Approach

Larger, complex energy related projects may require funding support to gain management approval. Funding opportunities vary from the federal Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCU) Scheme, to state certificate schemes, or government bespoke funding mechanisms.

Demonstrating project success may give you the leverage with the CFO and energy budgets to claim the cost reduction to facilitate further energy and cost reduction measures.

Do you need support to commence your energy efficiency journey or are you looking to revamp your existing efficiency approach?

Green Energy & Carbon Management has the experience to support you and your business objectives.  Just reach out to the friendly team at admin@gecm.com.au.

You can also meet us personally at the upcoming Australian Manufacturing Week (AMW) Expo at the ICC in Sydney from 17-19 April 2024. Come and see us in the Manufacturing Solutions Zone.

“GECM have been engaged to assist with the identification, development and implementation of CO2e reduction initiatives to support Ridley’s 2030 sustainability objectives. GECM’s proactive and practical approach has enabled a number of the projects to progress in a timely manner delivering forecasted benefits as planned.” David Coward, Engineering Projects Manager