Control Engineering

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Energy efficiency from ground up
February 25, 2008

As a result of our Energy as a Process Variable article in January, I received an email from an engineer that turned into an interesting exchange. Ultimately, I was invited to listen in on a monthly conference call where the company discussed energy saving initiatives.

Since I don't have permission to give you any specifics, I will only say that it is a process manufacturer with multiple sites around North America. The conversation involved a group that comprises plant engineer level individuals rather than vice presidents or other corporate officers.

One by one, each gave a report based on his plant discussing efforts they had made to reduce energy consumption. This included everything from shutting off lights in unused parts of the plant to VFDs on compressors. Each discussed the value of the efforts as best they could (kW hours saved, etc.). One participant had to report a step backward due to some problems with a thermal oxidizer that had increased natural gas consumption. One response to the news was, "That's not good," from one of the other participants. The guy delivering the negative report wasn't berated by his colleagues, but I thought I could hear some embarrassment in his voice. It struck me that they hold each other accountable for success company wide.

I came away from that discussion highly encouraged that this company has taken such a step. This type of grass roots approach to solving our energy problems at a plant level puts the job into people's hands that can see and fix the problem areas. The notion of holding people accountable for energy performance will go much farther than international protocols and the like. The only problem is that there probably aren't nearly enough companies that do this sort of thing. Maybe there are more than I know about. I certainly hope so.

Posted by Peter Welander on February 25, 2008 | Comments (1)