Industrial Energy Management System: How Digital IoT Solutions Improve Energy Efficiency

In modern industries today, consumption of energy is seen as a significant task. Industrial plants, commercial establishments as well as large industrial set up consuming large amounts of power and resources in machines, HVAC, lines, pumps, compressors etc. Can lead to huge wastage if not analyzed carefully, ultimately reflecting on the operational cost.

Using an energy management system, the organizations can use its features and view, analyze and optimize the energy consumption with real time data. Industrial IoT, Smart meters, connected devices, dashboards, analytics; these help companies shift from the usual energy reporting method to a progressive way of dealing with energy management.

Industrial Energy Management System - What is It?

An industrial energy management system or IEMS, is a modern technology based system, through which energy consumption patterns from machines, electrical panels, meters and other electrical components found in industries can be collected and compiled using specific software. Information collected is displayed on a centralized monitoring system.

In the traditional approach plant manager relies solely on electricity bill generated at month's end. Here with IEMS, they will see a detailed view of energy consumption at various stages within the organization.

Some of the important ones that are closely watched:

• Energy consumption (in kWh)
•  Voltage and Current
•  Power factor
•  Frequency
•  Peak demand
•  Machine level energy utilization
•  Energy usage trends over a period
•  Energy costs
•  Production to energy performance

This information, when viewed provides more clear idea of abnormally high energy usage, waste or any areas of improvement possible to run it further.

Why do Industries need Digital Energy Management?

The method of monitoring energy through an electricity bill does not reveal much on the why and how and when, how much energy is consumed and so the visibility is also limited.

A digital energy management system works continuously and delivers the required insights. For instance if a production machine unexpectedly starts consuming too much power than its normal functioning the system pinpoints that particular change.

Unforeseen peaks during hours when no operations is supposed to take place can result from possible equipment failure or idle equipment usage.

Hence it helps for:

•  Real time visibility of energy consumed.
•  Swift detection of energy wastage.
•  Machines level monitoring.
•  Data based historical energy analysis.
•  Energy performance benchmarking.
•  Automated notifications and reports.
•  Operations based on data driven approach.

IoT and Energy Management- the relationship!

The Industrial IOT connects all physical apparatuses to a software platform where all data collected about the industrial systems' working is used for further analysis.

Smart meter or electrical system uses various sensors and an IoT gateway that facilitates or collects the information and transfer the data.

Here is the workflow involved:

Smart Meters & Sensors --- IoT Gateway --- Data Processing --- Analytics Platform --- Dashboard Action

This architecture allows industries to have an organization-wide picture of the energy performance of the business and have comprehensive analyze over the period of time.

If the system in use allows for the communication and connectivity of machines at different stages, then IOT based approach can facilitate interaction between these systems based on their protocols.

Build a Smarter Energy Management Strategy

Crucial aspects of modern day Energy Management Systems.

1. Real-time Energy Monitoring

Energy consumption is visible continuously. Teams can observe what is being consumed on the real time and note changes between periods without having to wait for any particular reports.

This is most useful in businesses the have multiple plant rooms and energy consumption could fluctuate wildly between departments, the machines being used, the actual departments involved.

2. Equipment Level Monitoring

Monitoring an electric meter, as against machines; an enterprise can even monitor production equipment, electrical boards or power distribution sections.

This may help an enterprise to know which devices consume the most energy for efficiency improvements.

3. Energy Analytics

Monitoring has to be done to trace consumption patterns and identify abnormalities; especially from past results and figures for future analysis.

Using analysis an organization can compare its energy consumption during different:-

• Machines
• Departments
• Production shifts
• Organizations
• Production spans
• Various periods/ seasons.

This enables teams make data-led business decisions for better operational and electrical energy related performances.

4. Alerts and Notifications

An automation feature that will alert the concerned personnel on the predefined parameters exceeding limits in regard of the monitored results.

For instance: the alert would inform for unexpectedly high energy consumption and / or when too much power is being used per an organization.

An immediate alert is vital so that problems are handled before developing issues and escalating it into bigger operational challenges.

5. Centralized Dash Board

All relevant and critical energy KPIs will be readily available through a central interface. It will aid the management to take overview of the energy performance.

 Also the relevant technicians will be able to view more comprehensive data relating to a specific machine/area to delve deeper into it.

The dashboards will be an actionable representation of business's energy performance in a clear way, instead of data dumping.

Custom IoT Development for Industrial Energy Management

An enterprise will have a wide variety of appliances, machinery and communications protocols. For this, an out of-the-box platform may not completely fulfill all requirement of such business.

This where a custom IoT development solution is preferred.

An out-of-the-box platform simply cannot be all things at once for everyone as businesses work in dissimilar conditions.

Therefore a solution tailored to the specific needs for operational and utility purposes may include developing additional customized features or platforms.

In such case there might be unique device integration requirements, a specialized dashboard interface or custom metrics which may have specific KPIs for tracking the energy performances; an API for integration into existing applications or even collection & analyzing systems based on an organization's unique workflow and processes.

For example, a business that works in production would want a system with energy consumption monitored alongside production schedules.

A globally distributed system monitoring many sites would need customizable reports and user control parameters.

Custom IoT Software Development Services

The Custom IoT software development services help integrate various industrial devices and systems with online platforms where the collected electrical and operational data could be tracked, maintained and analyze by the enterprise application or web application as desired.

Such a custom IoT software platform could typically offer:

* Web interface for centralized tracking of results

* Mobile applications with full reporting features

* Devices integration and management modules

* Visualization dashboards

* API interface for data analysis

* Client specific KPIs and reports

* Customizable alarming modules

* Access controls and user authorizations

* History analysis and storing mechanism

The purpose is always to deliver a platform which can be easily embedded into and aligned with any organization’s existent functional streams rather than attempting to adapt the workflow into a generic, stand-alone platform.

What are the benefits of pairing up IoT and energy management?

IoT and energy management work hand in hand and form a stronger partnership enabling and driving better solutions for the business's efficiency parameters.

Some significant benefits of this approach include:

Enhanced energy visibility

A constant access to continuous monitoring data, allows teams with comprehensive visibility on every instance of energy consumption across their facility.

Faster issues diagnosis

Any unforeseen or unexpected deviations within current energy parameters could be instantly detected enabling prompt investigation and remediation of energy issues.

Enhanced operational choices

Past and present electrical and operational data can bringforth insights leading to more efficient and timely decisions with regard to the machinery operations and related utility consumption.

Reduce wasted energy resources

Once it becomes obvious where the energy is unnecessarily being consumed, organizations are better positioned to apply control mechanisms and improve their energy efficiency.

Scalable monitoring framework

IEMS utilizing IoT platforms can be readily scaled by expanding into new machines, monitoring sections, branches or entire operations by just adding more monitoring points.

So, to choosing for Industrial Energy Management

Such as is helping leading industrial organizations achieve optimal performance and efficiency using an innovative IoT-powered industrial monitoring and energy management solution. Combining smart energy meters and industrial data collection, its integrated platform offers real-time visibility into energy consumption through detailed reporting and sophisticated analysis.

The platform's smart features provide insights for industrial applications like real-time industrial energy monitoring, industrial energy profile at the equipment level, multi-site monitoring, industrial energy analysis, alerts and reporting, and industrial system integration.

These companies offer tailored IoT development services for industrial organizations who need custom industrial monitoring and management solutions for each of their unique needs and specific industrial problems.

Their complete Industrial IoT solutions and services are more diverse, covering water management,HVAC monitoring,predictive maintenance,busbar monitoring,industrial plant digitalization,and more.

Migrating to smarter industrial energy management

Smart industrial energy management is shifting from a basic focus on electricity measurement to in-depth energy monitoring in industrial applications.

With IoT connectivity, industrial organizations can accumulate constant streams of data for gaining an understanding of consumption trends. Therefore, they can uncover and rectify waste and make smarter strategic decisions for operating their industry.

For the industrial organization's benefit, combining an industrial energy management system with a digital energy management system presents excellent prospects for optimizing operations.

Tailored solutions offer further capabilities than basic energy monitoring platforms by providing custom IoT development or customized IoT software development services to tailor dashboards, integrations, analytics, and workflows to their unique needs.

Learn more about energy management solution and explore how IoT can support smarter energy monitoring and optimization.