Energy Management as an llot Solution

Following the dramatic rise in electricity prices, energy consumption is becoming an increasingly important variable that needs be carefully influenced.

- Volker Heinzer, Sachit Mohan

Energy management systems have long offered a solution. But only now is there an lloT-supported application for the capture and optimisation of energy consumption, which - as in many other areas of digitalisation - promises considerable added value.

For decades, energy costs were a reliable and predictable variable in production and with competitive costs of around 5 cents per kWh, they were easy enough to calculate. There are a number of reasons this calculation is no longer reliable, the war in Ukraine and the energy transition prompted by climate change are perhaps the most significant. In any event, organisations should now budget around 25 cents per kWh, which means that energy costs have a much greater impact on production costs, and energyintensive companies in particular face major problems.

Most importantly, there is no improvement in sight. Quite the opposite in fact. CO2 pricing will cause energy costs to climb higher, and the urgent need to renew and expand electricity grids will mean that electricity costs will need to be passed on to users.

Managing energy - a task for today and tomorrow

What is scarce, expensive and essential needs to be 'managed', which is why energy management is the current watchword. Appropriate IT tools are available and are frequently used. These use energy meters to capture consumption (for electricity, gas, compressed air, etc.), which users can then trace to individual areas of production, systems or even production quantities.

These systems are especially useful when they are full integrated into the organisation's or production department's data environment, and not operated as standalone devices. This way, the 'adjustment screws' for targeted optimisation and clear allocation of energy costs to individual products or production steps will be transparent (in the best case scenario).