ENERGY MANAGEMENT
MAINTAINING POWER
Steve Edgson, Director, Asset Handling, explains energy efficiency as a key driver for planned maintenance and condition-based monitoring.
Often, when budgets are tight and businesses are under pressure to cut costs, maintenance is one of the first areas to feel the financial squeeze. Maintenance is a significant cost, which can account for as much as 40% of the operational budget. However, there is increasing industry-wide recognition that slumping on maintenance is false economy, especially as companies point the finger at rising energy costs as a major business threat.
“THERE IS A HUGE POTENTIAL FOR
SOCIOECONOMIC
DAMAGE AS SOARING ENERGY PRICES
THREATEN TO HIT JOBS.”
A massive rise in energy costs is forecast to hit the UK business economy. In December 2014, the Committee on Climate Change
32 | TOMORROW’S FM
projected that organisations are likely to face increased energy costs of around one third through to 2030. In a recent YouGov survey, 53% of companies expected their energy bills to rise, with one in 10 expecting an increase of more than 10% this year. The survey highlighted the huge potential for socioeconomic damage as soaring energy prices threaten ‘to undermine business sentiment and hit jobs’.
Properly maintained equipment is more energy efficient and an effective maintenance strategy is vital for keeping systems running at optimum level and energy bills down. Keeping heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems running properly and at peak efficiency is the first step in managing a facility’s energy use. On average, HVAC systems are responsible for almost a half of a building’s total energy use and also, by limiting equipment degradation, typically represent the largest cost saving opportunities. Careful planning and forward thinking are needed for maintaining HVAC systems but this
can often be overlooked in the face of the traditional view that maintenance is nothing more than an overhead expense. As HVAC systems are not the most visible of a building’s assets, they can go completely unnoticed until something goes wrong, and when it is too late for maintenance to be performed efficiently.
To achieve energy efficient maintenance strategies, FMs must pay more attention to their assets, moving forward from a fix-it- when-it’s-broken approach. We need to take our noses out of the maintenance manual to monitor assets more closely, predicting when they might falter and servicing them in advance of that point. The Government’s energy- reduction demands, and the public consciousness around sustainability, are also key drivers for maintaining assets in an intelligent way.
As the risk and cost of maintenance and failure are increasing, maintenance culture is changing from the unpredictability of reactive work to a ‘best in class’ model of planned, scheduled and preventive
twitter.com/TomorrowsFM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70