Energy Monitoring and Targeting is primarily a management technique that uses energy information as a basis to eliminate waste, reduce and control current level of energy use and improve the existing operating procedures. It builds on the principle “you can’t manage what you don’t measure”.
Basic M&T
Basic Monitoring and Targeting can be achieved using simple analysis that is based around half-hourly data profiles.
- Reviewing Load/Consumption profiles
- Basic analysis tables and comparisons
Don’t overlook the basics, lots of good work gets done with fairly simple information.
Using data to make a typical daily profile as shown above it is clear to see where to concentrate, in terms of potential for reduction of the baseline. Reducing this down as low as possible by concentrating on “sharpening up” the start and finish times is a good start as well as looking into depressing the peak load as well. Commonly referred to as the ‘Top Hat’ approach.
There is nothing wrong with starting simple when profiling data for analysis.
Key Drivers for M&T
- Cost Reduction
- Energy Management Reporting
- Mandatory Reporting e.g. SECR (Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting)
- Understanding and building the case for new technologies
If considering demand side response, batteries or other forms of new technology if you don’t have consumption information at a reasonably granular level then it is much more difficult to make decisions confidently.
Without metering there is no data to look at and without M&T the data is meaningless. Applying proven analysis techniques to gain insight into energy consumption data is a cornerstone of energy management.
Tim Holman, Chair, ESTA Automatic Monitoring and Targeting Group
Advanced aM&T
More advanced energy management techniques include:
- Normalisation and Benchmarking
- Tracking of Actual vs. Expected
- Measurement and Verification (M&V)
Normalisation
The basic concept of normalisation, i.e. by dividing our energy consumption with a driver whether production or degree days (a measure of the weather) is fundamentally good, however if you have a bad day on production then the normalised value is going to go up, the number of kWh per production unit will go up if there is any significant baseload.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that anybody dropped the ball in terms of energy efficiency, it just means that production was down that day and that may have nothing to do with the efficient use of energy?
Targeting
Tracking of your actual vs. your expected consumption that deals with the above issue quite nicely, because with this methodology you model more accurately the expected energy consumption for a given production level. This deals with the fact that when production is low you will expect energy consumption to be lower but not as low as it could have been using only normalisation.
Above (on the left) is an example of a Regression Analysis in a factory that either has a high unit production or very little production, Y-axis showing weekend output, the points showing usual weekend production.
This can be turned into a CUSUM analysis (shown in right graph) which can then in turn be used to create the chart below which shows the actual consumption against the expected.
It shows that at weekends where there is zero production, the expected and actual match very well. This will also match on a day where the production is lower or higher. If it doesn’t match, investigate what is happening there could be a problem with your model or with your energy consumption? Once expected vs. actual is in place “alarm lines” can be added if expected vs. actual move too far apart.
aM&T Software
Select an aM&T software solution that includes these techniques that can be applied either as soon as your installation is complete or later on when you are ready to move into more sophisticated statistical techniques.
Measurement & Verification (M&V)
An aM&T system is an essential tool to ensure money that is spent on new plant or equipment projects such as lighting replacements, new CHP etc. are returning the expected savings. Every energy saving project should be identified and understood in terms of exactly how it is expect to perform vs. what was in place before. This can then be monitored in a repeatable way as part of an aM&T solution to make sure that it actually does.
For more information on M&T , ESTA have members who provide specialist services to assist in all areas, why not Contact Us.