In process plants, energy usage is the largest single expense. Plant owners are always finding ways to run the plant in a more energy efficient manner and develop an energy management culture. Before you can run the plant process at an energy-optimised level, you will need to be able to measure and capture energy usage at different parts of the plant. Once you are armed with the data, only then will you know exactly where the areas of highest energy consumption are and how you can reduce costs by improving energy efficiency.

Alongside energy consumption, the quality of the energy supplied, the reliability of supply and effective system utilization also play an important role in ensuring profitability for the plant. This provides plant owners with another reason for continuous measurement and analysis of energy consumption.

One investment that helps plant owners to achieve energy optimization is energy meter data-logging.

Energy management topology

Phoenix Contact’s EMpro energy meters acquire and monitor the characteristic electrical data of your machines and systems. The network-capable EMpro monitor characteristic electrical data centrally and on site. The modular controller gathers all relevant energy characteristics of the production processes and logs these in an SQL database. Once logged, the data can be displayed in an intuitive manner using web-based software or, as a common practice for oil storage companies, the energy consumption (Voltage, Current and Watt) can be output into your desired printable invoice format,

There are many ways to achieve energy optimisation, one of which is leveraging on technologies such as variable frequency drive (VFD). VFD, apart from its primary feature of being energy saving, also has the advantage of prolonging the life span of the motor. However, implementing technologies such as VFD is costly and energy data-logging can definitely be used to justify your VFD investment.

Now, does it not sound like investing in energy data-logging solutions is killing multiple birds with just one stone?

Find out more about increasing Energy Efficiency with our solutions or how our
Remote Control/Remote Maintenance solutions can help cut down wired connections but still provide signal consistency and reliability.