Emerson Process Management recently announced Energy Advisor a real-time energy management information system that automates the process of monitoring and managing energy consumption across mills, plants, and refineries. Representatives say the new system will result in saving an average of five-to-ten percent in energy savings annually.
“Energy Advisor is a natural extension to Emerson’s Smart Energy Management portfolio,” said Peter Zornio, chief strategic officer, Emerson Process Management. “In 2011, we announced the company’s commitment to improving our customers’ industrial energy efficiency and we began focusing on how to help our customers best optimize combustion processes, steam systems, and on-site electrical generation. In 2013, Emerson unveiled its pervasive sensing strategy that extends wireless technologies beyond process controls to include the extensive use of wireless sensors to monitor energy consumption in our customers’ operations. Energy Advisor leverages this technology with analytics to provide visualization of the full energy picture, helping companies make smarter decisions with real-time insight into site-wide energy performance. ”
Energy Advisor pulls energy data from various sources, including (but not limited to) Emerson’s DeltaV and Ovation distributed control systems, as well as its wireless infrastructure, to provide real-time analysis and historical context. Using Emerson’s unique process models, manufacturers are now able to analyze and compare three critical items: the amount of energy a system is designed to use, what it has used over time and what it is consuming in the moment.
“Many manufacturers are looking at their energy performance, but it is usually in hindsight and is often an incomplete picture, with data culled from disparate sources,” said Barbara Hamilton, energy management program manager at Emerson Process Management. “To increase energy productivity and eliminate waste, manufacturers need more than historical data. They need real-time insight into what is going on to drive continuous improvement behavior. That is what Energy Advisor delivers.”
Some key features of the technology include consumption monitoring, data integrity checker, energy target calculator and standard reports.