Case study: Impact of auxiliary energy in manufacturing operations

There is shortage of trained staff within SMEs and even large enterprises that can be dedicated to energy auditing, efficiency/optimisation and overall energy management in manufacturing. A key gap is the provision of a capability to automatically monitor energy consumption data in production manufacturing and the analysis of the data to permit optimising the minimisation of energy. This paper outlines a methodology for effective monitoring of total energy consumption during the manufacturing process, so as to reduce overall energy costs. A case study is presented on the application of the methodology in quantifying the levels of direct auxiliary energy used in a real-world manufacturing company. The outcome of the study highlights the significance of auxiliary energy on total energy usage.