Extended industrial energy assessments supported by monitoring
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abstract
One week of monitored demand, temperature or on-off data has been used in studies of 11 industrial plants to provide substantiation for energy conservation projects and to study demand control. Both centrally located loggers for monitoring electrical phase information from remote sensors and individual, self-contained sensor-logger combination units with generally simpler output have been used. Extended assessments involving about two additional days in each of seven plants are discussed in detail in this paper. The additional days provided more time to study plant energy consuming equipment, waste management, and productivity issues. More time was available to interview plant personnel about related concerns and possible solutions, thus leading to identification of more projects to study. This led to about two more recommended projects in each final report (a 25% increase). Recent average savings are $13,000 per year per recommended project. A program day costs about $6,000, so the payback for up to two additional days is less than one-half year. Data was obtained that led to the identification of several equipment turn off projects. Accurate data on duty factors (and in the case of the centrally located loggers, demand factors) also result to support energy conservation calculations. However, the projects were small in terms of annual cost savings. They are not cost effective when compared to the program cost of the additional time and effort to install and remove the loggers, having a simple payback in excess of two years. No demand control projects in the form of demand reduction or demand shifting were identified, supporting the conclusion that small and medium-sized industry is not a good candidate for demand control.
