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INDUSTRY 4.0/IIOT


IDENTIFYING ENERGY BLIND SPOTS


Paul Walsh, General Manager – EMEA at CIM, explores how innovative smart building analytic strategies can help manufacturers achieve efficency and sustainability goals


management teams overseeing their energy- intensive processes. This is especially relevant given the nation’s high industrial electricity £/kWh and ongoing geopolitical events. Ensuring process efficiency is an ongoing


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challenge for facility managers at life sciences and micro-electronics manufacturers looking to keep their firms competitive. With energy- intensive industries bemoaning a lack of governmental support and warning of electricity prices rising up to 60% more than their European counterparts, this task is becoming increasingly difficult. This is to say nothing of global crises affecting the worldwide energy mix. Alongside this urgent issue, pressure is


mounting to make operations more sustainable. Legislation stipulating net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 is tightening further, with the Government adopting the Climate Change Committee’s Sixth Carbon Budget recommended emissions reductions of 75% by 2035. Though welcome, this acceleration will make decarbonising operations more difficult. Yet action is still being taken, with 40 major


UK companies pledging carbon neutrality by 2030, and others aiming for 2050. But with industry grappling with post-COVID recoveries and new pressures caused by the Ukrainian war, adhering to decarbonisation targets will require a considered, well-informed approach from facilities managers, bolstered by assistance from all business levels. Though clear need is there, evidence


suggests insufficient senior leadership support exists to make energy-intensive processes such as HVAC more efficient, a clear oversight given HVAC can account for circa 40% of total site energy consumption. This conclusion can be seen in The Energy Blind Spots, a new report from CIM, which found only 35% of facilities managers surveyed at Tier 1 manufacturers felt the C-Suite highly


8 MAY 2022 | PROCESS & CONTROL


arbon neutrality is a long-term, challenging goal for many large UK manufacturers, and the facility


By tackling energy blind spots through a data-driven building analytics strategies, facilities managers and the C-suite can


ensure their operations are both future-proofed and resilient against current concerns


prioritised energy efficiency. Though 54% of respondents felt HVAC costs


are being recognised by senior management, further emphasis is required to improve energy efficiency, overall competitiveness and progress towards net zero goals. Leadership teams, therefore, should target efficiency gains from HVAC plant and critical equipment. Further findings from CIM further


demonstrate this, with 87% citing CAPEX constraints as a key obstacle to improving energy performance. Consequently, finding OPEX savings in existing plant processes becomes even more important if budgets are to be sufficiently improved to a point where these restrictions are less of a concern. Lacking support from senior leadership


teams, facilities managers could constantly be on the back foot, carrying out reactive fixes from concerns raised by building management system (BMS) alarms. Moving these teams from firefighting to proactive, preventative process maintenance could help mitigate issues generated by rising energy bills and ambitious sustainability commitments. CIM’s research underscores this point,


showing fewer than one-third of surveyed facilities managers (29%) continually monitored carbon emissions. Considering the fact that 63% of respondents’ sites had been certified to the ISO 50001 standard for energy management, and 62% believing they were deficient in day-to-day collection of key BMS data, conclusions can be drawn. Namely, under-pressure, misdirected facilities management teams require more support monitoring building performance metrics. It is, therefore, clear that data-driven


strategies are needed to alleviate short-term, daily work challenges alongside larger


efficiency concerns. But given the vast quantity of data that HVAC and critical equipment can generate, issues arise for time-poor, under-pressure facilities management teams. This is leading to ‘BMS alarm fatigue’, the


phenomenon of facilities managers becoming so overwhelmed with alarms that they do not know which to prioritise and address. This can be seen in CIM’s report, in which 29% of facilities managers said all BMS alerts are unactioned because they receive too many notifications. To address this need, building analytics


platforms are being developed that apply machine learning and automated Fault Detection diagnostics to building data, outputting actionable predictive and proactive insights and process improvements for facility management personnel. Alongside verifying that improvements do not degrade over time, the most innovative of these systems are also monitored by HVAC mechatronic and electrical engineers, ensuring workloads are prioritised towards actions that will achieve the strongest sustainability and efficiency gains. Establishing this foundation means facilities


managers can break out of reactive maintenance and repair cycles based on ‘fit- and-forget’ principles, and look at larger decarbonisation and efficiency pressures. Streamlining OPEX costs can also help free up CAPEX budgets to invest in more energy- efficient equipment, creating a virtuous circle of interdependent areas – sustainability, competitiveness, and energy efficiency.


CIM https://cim.io/the-peak-platform/applications- manufacturing/


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