Energy management is beneficial for multiple reasons. It reduces the energy consumption of the facilities while maintaining the same level of performance.
It’s important due to the global world problem of economics and ecology – high energy consumption, as well as the exhaustibility of natural resources. It is important to understand that such an expensive product as energy requires effective management to achieve energy and environmental efficiency.
Energy management is a set of organizational and technical measures that allow realizing the economically feasible potential to reduce the energy intensity of marketable products and conditionally constant (independent of the volume of production) energy costs.
Today, the conservation of fuel and energy resources is global – countries are interested in the efficient use of resources, lower production costs, and are also concerned about climate change. On June 15, 2011, the international standard ISO (ISO) 50001: 2011 “Energy Management Systems” was adopted.
The main principle of the ISO 50001 standard is to plan, execute, control, and improve. The study showed that the effect of the introduction of ISO in the first year amounted to an average of 3.8% of resource savings, in the next six months – another 10.1%. As part of the implementation of ISO 50001: 2011, the organization must ensure that the following conditions are met: Training in energy management standards. Heat exchanger manufacturer organizations are now able to introduce innovative technology with efficient results. Industrial organizations can use such innovation to optimize their processes.
The organization should prepare an appropriate level of professional training for those who will be responsible for the energy resource use and ensure compliance with energy management standards. It should be based on special education, retraining or professional experience.
Decision-making competence
It helps the management of the organization to make the most effective decisions on the optimal energy resource use. The organization must take care of a sufficient level of knowledge of those responsible.
Implementation at the design stage.
The organization is required to evaluate and record all factors of energy use at each stage of any project.
Operational management.
The mandatory control standards include the identification and optimization of all conducted operations and processes related to the significant energy resource use.
Document management.
ISO standards have very strict requirements for documenting all processes.
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All employees who work in the organization have the opportunity to participate in improving energy efficiency. Purchasing The organization is obliged every time, when purchasing equipment, to assess the level of energy consumption, as well as to fix the specifications and technical requirements documented for each purchased energy source.
Why does it benefit companies to invest in energy management?
In the case of companies, energy management has multiple benefits. The ‘trick’ is to make a rational and efficient use to maximize the energy consumed, avoiding inefficiencies.
Reason1: Identify areas for improvement
They stand out as a fundamental point to detect quality and safety aspects of the energy system. It helps in making users know the system, identifying the points consumers and implementing improvements to reach high levels of energy efficiency.
To achieve this, energy management systems are a fundamental tool. It is a set of planned actions aimed at reducing energy consumption without altering production levels or conditions of use and comfort in industrial centres.
Reason 2: Reduces the amount of the energy bill is reduced
Improving the energy efficiency of the facilities reduces energy consumption and, consequently, the amount of the bill. Energy savings can be more than 20% without affecting the services provided to customers. And this helps companies improve their profit margins.
Reason 3: Contributes to reducing greenhouse emissions
It is essential that companies are involved and that they adopt measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. It’s an objective in which energy management is fundamental: less energy consumed in industrial processes means less GHG emissions.
Reason 4: Generate a good brand image
Another advantage for the company that implements an energy management system is that it enhances its image of commitment to sustainable energy development.
The organizations that do this reinforce their profile of responsible companies, with a low ‘carbon footprint’, concerned about the environment and the sustainability of the planet. This good image can be a competitive advantage over other companies in the sector that do not perform energy management in their facilities or adopt any environmental policy.
Reason 5: It can be applied in any company
Regardless of its size, economic volume and sector it is dedicated to, any industrial production unit can incorporate energy management into its facilities. Small businesses will have a greater margin of energy improvement since they are the ones that have so far applied fewer measures of improvement in their energy performance.
Reason 6: The savings compensate the investment
In most cases, energy management costs are offset by the savings obtained by improving the energy efficiency of the facilities. Fundamentally, there are two types of actions to save energy.
Organizational actions.
It is about promoting the efficient use of energy in the activity of the company, so its cost is usually small. These are organizational actions, such as improvements in the regulation and programming of facilities, promoting more sustainable production habits.
Technical actions.
They carry a certain investment. In some cases, they may be subsidized. Technical actions are the rehabilitation of facilities to improve their efficiency or take advantage of renewable energy, optimize energy processes and recover waste heat.
Monitoring Heat Exchanger Performance
Monitoring heat exchanger performance can greatly enhance energy efficiency in production processes. It’s important to ensure that we check and record the pressure daily to make sure it is higher on the product side than the fluid side. The plate heat exchanger consists of several stainless-steel plates, sealed at the ends by seals and held firmly together by a press. Establish a regular program to monitor the condition of the plates (corrosion pits in the plates, condition of the seals, cracks, etc.) which takes account of the design specifications, operating conditions, number of hours of operation, wear, history of plates and seals. If pitting is there in the plates of any section, check all the plates in the same section.
If, during the inspection, it is found that the plates are dirty, manually inspect and clean the exchanger every day until an effective cleaning program has been implemented. Check the integrity of all heat exchange surfaces in contact with products at least every year.
If there are integrity problems with the heat exchanger (problems with plates or seals), perform more frequent inspections to ensure that the problems have been resolved. Keep records to indicate that the tests have been performed. Learn more about performance monitoring of heat exchangers
The need for emergency planning.
The standard pays particular attention to the establishment, documentation and support in the functional state of special procedures. The technical effect is achieved due to the emergence of the social sphere of equipment in enterprises and industries. There is resource effect, expressed in the release of various types of resources. The economic effect is to increase labor productivity, reduce labor costs, material consumption, and, consequently, reduce the cost of production, increase profitability and profit. The social effect involves the satisfaction of people (with quality goods, providing better working conditions, its safety and automation).
In modern conditions, energy conservation is becoming one of the main directions in the field of state economic policy. Energy Efficiency Scores of Different Countries Studies have shown that the leaders of enterprises are not always in a hurry to introduce energy management systems in their production. They seriously underestimate all the opportunities and benefits of improving energy efficiency – their judgments are conservative.
Conclusion
The leaders of such enterprises mistakenly believe that possible savings could amount to only 8-10%, while it is quite realistic to reduce energy consumption by 20-30%. Besides, most enterprises cannot implement effective mechanisms to manage energy conservation due to a lack of their funds. Existing barriers to energy efficiency can be eliminated by using various mechanisms.
