March 7 is fast approaching if you want to get the 200 Euro discount to the April 1-3 Emerson Exchange conference in Stuttgart, Germany. One of the presentations you’ll want to catch is on the implications of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive.

Emerson’s Steve Offer and Paul Cockman will be presenting on these requirements and how they form two key parts of an energy management system. A structured methodology, knowledge of best practices, and the role technology can play helps you to meet the requirements and deliver sustainable energy savings to your organization.

Per the directive and beginning in July 2014, large industrial plants must perform regular energy performance audits and drive towards energy saving programs. To accomplish these, it’s important to implement an energy management system and adopt best practices. The energy management system includes the establishment of energy management processes and the identification, prioritization, and implementation of energy improvement projects.

Projects can come from several categories; the powerhouse is generally the biggest concentration of energy on a plant. The efficient generation and distribution of steam and electricity for use in the process is a big potential area of energy savings. The utilization of these energies including, hot water supply & distribution, compressed air supply & distribution, electrical motors, in the production/manufacturing processes are other potential areas for large energy savings.

Measuring the energy flows and losses around steam, water & condensate, fuel, compressed air, and electricity are required as part of mass and energy balances for the process. When measuring flow, possible technologies must be evaluated for application suitability, pressure loss (reoccurring operating cost), piping requirements, installed cost, and accuracy.

Steve and Paul will share a table showing the energy measurement areas versus flow measurement technologies including orifice/differential pressure (DP) flow, Annubar DP flow, vortex, magnetic, and Coriolis.

For each of the measurements, the technologies are categorized as ideal, suitable, not advisable, or not suitable.

Energy losses that temperature measurements can help to identify includes process areas such as stacks, air coolers, water coolers, and final product heat.

Wireless devices have opened up opportunities for additional measurements to help locate energy losses. Examples include steam trap leak detection and heat exchanger fouling.

Steve and Paul will share how Emerson Industrial Energy Consultants work with process manufacturers to perform audits of current energy performance, operating models and costs to determine areas of opportunity. Next, they collaborate to develop a plan defined to address gaps and redefine operating parameters. Out of this plan come the objectives and estimated gains. The final phase is to execute and measure, which includes upgrading technology and work practices. Performance is monitored and the results are compared against the original benchmarks to quantify the results of the project.

They close their presentation sharing several examples where this process was performed and the quantified results achieved. In some cases, the return on investment was measured in months.

We hope to see you there with us in Stuttgart to hear this any many other examples of improvements to production processes.