Print page

Research shows benefits of adopting energy management practices

05/28/2009

PLANO, Texas – Recent research from the Aberdeen Group reveals that industry-leading manufacturers are much more likely than other companies to view energy management as strategic to their business success and to apply advanced data visualization, collection and monitoring tools to their energy-management and cost-reduction strategies.

The report, partially funded by Invensys and titled “Energy Management: Driving Value in Industrial Environments,” defines best-in-class companies as those that have 90% overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) ratings, have reduced their energy consumption by 15% and outperform corporate operating margin goals by 15%. 

“Manufacturers are under intense pressure to reduce operating costs, and many are responding to these pressures by deploying advanced energy management tools and techniques,” said report co-author Mehul Shah, research analyst with the Aberdeen Group’s Manufacturing Operations and Industrial Automation Practice. “For some, energy costs constitute as much as 25 percent of their total operating costs, and even small improvements can have a dramatic impact on their bottom line.”

Among the best practices adopted by best-in-class companies are:
- 62% make energy usage data available to decision makers in real-time;
- 55% take energy costs into account when scheduling production;
- 62% establish metrics to quantify the benefits of energy management programs;
- 56% tie operational metrics to financial metrics;
- 56% invest in technology to automate collection and monitoring of energy data.

Invensys has helped make the report available for free until July 3, 2009. It can be downloaded at http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?spid=30410133&cid=5900.

“The findings of the Aberdeen survey are highly consistent with what we see among the clients of our energy management practice,” said Nathalie Marcotte, vice president, Global Consulting, Invensys Process Systems. “For example, in the first months of automated energy monitoring and management, our client Sasol Infrachem realized a 6% savings on energy feedstocks and 4% savings in electricity costs at just two steam stations, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings over the year. They expect substantial incremental savings as they bring together new business information and process data to identify other areas of improvement.”