Rockwell, Kraft partner on sustained energy reduction

Milwaukee, WI—Rockwell Automation reports that Kraft Foods has picked Rockwell's Power & Energy Management Solutions (PEMS) team to develop and execute a sustained energy reduction initiative at Kraft's North American manufacturing facilities.

By Control Engineering Staff July 6, 2004

Milwaukee, WI— Rockwell Automation reports that Kraft Foods has picked Rockwell’s Power & Energy Management Solutions (PEMS) team to develop and execute a sustained energy reduction initiative at Kraft’s North American manufacturing facilities. This multiyear project will aid Kraft’s understanding and management of how it uses energy in its plants, and help it reduce energy costs by decreasing consumption.

“Finding ways to reduce energy demand is consistent with our drive to achieve efficiencies in all aspects of our business,” says Fred Sherriff, Kraft’s manufacturing technical services VP. “It’s consistent with our efforts as a responsible corporate citizen to reduce the environmental impact of our operations.”

Rockwell adds that Kraft and other manufacturers can use its Allen-Bradley Powermonitors and Rockwell Software RSEnergyMetrix energy management software to automate load-profiling mechanisms and analyze power quality issues, such as harmonics, to identify energy consumption patterns.

“There’s a common misconception that manufacturing-related energy costs are uncontrollable,” says Al Hamdan, Rockwell’s Power & Energy Management Solutions product marketing manager. “On the contrary, quantifying energy consumption for various processes and identifying power quality problems can give manufacturers good information to pinpoint specific operations where they can optimize energy use. We’re looking forward to applying our expertise to help Kraft with this very important challenge.”

Control Engineering Daily News DeskJim Montague, news editorjmontague@reedbusiness,.com