The Bottom Line Energy Savings

The Bottom Line on Energy Savings

How can it be that during bad economic times, large power consumers have more opportunity to reduce power costs. The answer is simple…flexibility.  When the demand for product is lower than normal there may be  more opportunity to make product during times of the day when electricity costs are lower.

For example, in many electricity markets there is an on and off peak period.  For many locals, the on peak period is from approximately 8:00am – 8:00pm while the off peak period is from 8:01pm to 7:59am.  The price of electricity is significantly lower during the off peak period and therefore it may make sense to shift production to the off peak as much as possible.

Many industrial power users in de-regulated markets purchase power from the regional Electricity Market.  The price of power goes up and down throughout day depending on the demand for electricity and availability of generation.  In these markets there is “predicted price” data available to power users so they can vary how much power they are using depending on upcoming price fluctuations.  By planning more usage when the price is lower the company can save money.

Companies must also be diligent in identifying electricity waste and understanding how the facility uses electricity. The best way to understand electricity use and identify waste is to install an “electricity monitoring” system.  These systems centralize data from power meters that feed electricity to the facility from the utility. They can also gather information from meters throughout the facility’s own power distribution system that feed power to equipment and machinery.

The result is timely data that is easy to access and provides visual and tabular information depicting the use of electricity.  These systems can not only identify waste, they can also reproduce the electricity bill (usually before you even receive one) and calculate carbon reductions due to energy efficiency and saving initiatives.

Additionally some of these systems have the ability to actually manage selected electricity loads in the facility and back off load when it is economically beneficial to do so.  This can result in significant savings by also reducing peak demand charges and waste kWh.

About the author:  A. Crossley is a staff writer for www.EnergyReporting.com , a website that provided information and news regarding energy efficiency, alternative energy, power generation, energy management and control.