ENERGY EFFICIENCY


BSEE


Understanding your energy consumption to drive savings


One of the fundamentals of successful energy saving is that if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. Rob Leak, head of energy solutions for Inprova Energy, explains how to monitor and analyse energy use as the starting point for improving energy performance


whether you are making optimum use of this expensive resource. Without this information, you are unable to become energy smart. Successful monitoring and targeting can help you achieve cost and carbon savings, as well as operational efficiencies by the following: uPinpointing excessive and abnormal energy consumption and finding areas of waste.


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uUnderstanding what your ideal energy consumption should be.


uIdentifying faulty equipment or processes to highlight excessive energy use and inform maintenance strategies.


uVisualising energy trends. uControlling and managing energy consumption.


uInforming your energy management strategies and investment.


uProfiling energy consumption and predicting future needs to support budgeting and load management.


uUnderstanding power quality of equipment and any necessary remedial action to correct power factor/optimise voltage.


Gathering data


Data collection should start with top- level electricity usage by examining bills and half hourly and sub meter readings, where available. This may suffice for certain organisations and requirements, but it will only tell you about the power that's flowing through the meter. One meter may serve a number of buildings, so in these instances you won't be able to see the energy profile of an individual building, nor will you understand the energy performance of your equipment.


Circuit­level monitoring


uData collection should start with top­level electricity usage


Circuit-level monitoring will provide much deeper insights at an individual device or circuit level, which is vital for checking the performance of energy hungry equipment. In this way you can see second-by-second how various lighting circuits, distribution boards, pumps, air conditioning compressors, refrigerators, etc. are performing. For example, you will identify whether there are any maintenance issues, or whether they are using energy out of hours. This granular-level analysis can also be applied to gas and water.


y gathering, analysing and optimising energy data you gain the insights required to understand how and when you are consuming energy and


Power quality


Understanding power factor is an important area of monitoring. Examining bills to see if you are paying penalty reactive charges is the first indication of poor power factor. Poor power factor can cost organisations hundreds or thousands of pounds in reactive power charges and excessive power usage, yet it is easily remedied and power factor correction can deliver fast payback. At the same time, it is also advisable to review the wider site power quality as other problems may be identified, and combined solutions may be incorporated.


Supply capacity


Getting power factor under control is also important to avoid exceeding supply capacity (ASC). You should measure your maximum demand to avoid using more electricity than allowed for in your supply contract. This is more important than ever following Ofgem's April 2018 DCP161 policy change. This imposes a penalty on organisations who exceed the limits of their power connection agreement, which could add as much as two per cent to the power bills of larger business energy consumers (using half-hourly meters). Equally, if your ASC is set too high, you will be paying for capacity you don’t need. Measuring maximum demand is not straightforward. It's not a simple case of comparing your maximum active power consumption in kW with your ASC. As the ASC incorporates active power in kW and reactive power in kVAr, you will need an understanding of your use of both.


Interpreting and optimising data


At a basic level, organisations may analyse and interpret the gathered data manually using spreadsheets. There are, however, many software and hardware systems available to automate the data analysis process and provide real-time insights and reporting. These cloud- based platforms can provide hourly, daily, weekly or monthly reports at various levels of detail, as required. To use data meaningfully, organisations need to ask the right questions. This relies on understanding a baseline consumption pattern for ‘normal’ weather, ‘normal’ production processes or occupancy levels, and ‘average’ energy wastage. It's also important to understand historic consumption trends and establish the shape of your consumption profile, e.g. where are the peaks? This provides a starting point to understand any variances in consumption patterns and enables you to plan an energy strategy. It will also prove invaluable in informing your choices at supply contract renewal times.


Understand the factors that drive energy use


For most organisations, variations in energy use are likely to fall into a number of categories:


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Production / Activity - changes in production output, shift patterns, or occupancy levels, etc. Weather - although organisations tend to use more energy in


colder/darker weather, the relationship is more complex. Time-lags involved and influence from wind speed and precipitation, as well as hot spells, are also relevant. Behaviour - employee behaviour can also affect energy consumption levels, whether this stems from leaving on equipment overnight or preferring to work in warmer offices. Comparing usage across similar sites and looking at usage changes after efficiency awareness campaigns can often reveal the human factors.


Using data insights


Having gained an understanding of your ‘normal’ energy consumption patterns and how factors such as production, occupancy, behaviour and seasonality influence these, you are well placed to investigate unexplained variations in energy consumption. This will enable you to identify instances of higher than expected use and to react promptly in cases where this results from wasteful or inefficient processes.


For example, you may spot that energy use increases just before the routine maintenance of major items of plant or equipment. This may prompt consideration of the costs and benefits of preventative maintenance or bringing forward maintenance schedules. Those using software in monitoring and targeting can set up automatic prompts and alerts for when energy consumption operates outside the normal profile.


Informing your future energy strategy


Understanding energy consumption patterns is invaluable in developing strategic energy plans, as well as informing contract renewal choices and improving bill validation. It can also help inform energy load shifting to avoid peak charging hours, and future business development plans.


www.inprovaenergy.com BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER MARCH 2019 26


uUnderstanding energy consumption patterns is invaluable in developing strategic energy plans


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Having gained an understanding of your ‘normal’ energy consumption patterns and how factors such as production, occupancy, behaviour and seasonality influence these, you are well placed to investigate unexplained variations in energy consumption


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