A powercut to boost industry profits

Businesses in industrial sectors are missing out on potential fuel bill savings of 10% per annum, according to leading telemetry systems provider, Box Telematics

With an annual UK energy bill of over £52 billion - that's without the expected 15% increase owing to the Climate Change Levy - Box Telematics is advising British businesses to look at all available energy-saving methods and control systems.

Box Telematics is working closely with companies across a wide range of industries to implement 'wire-free' telemetry systems that measure energy consumption hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute. Surprisingly, the majority of customers do not possess a breakdown of energy consumption across manufacturing plants, offices, distribution centres and the like. And without realising how much energy is being used and how it is being used, it is impossible to take the necessary steps to reduce usage. The key is management and control, the company says.

Mike Langley, Box Telematics' sales and marketing director, says: "When energy consumption is not closely monitored it is inevitable that money is being wasted. Our philosophy is: if you don't measure, you can't manage.

"Companies in the industrial sector need meaningful performance indicators which will facilitate greater energy management, which is where 'wire-free' telemetry systems have a leading role to play. Real-time monitoring of energy usage levels sent directly to a PC not only means that money saving decisions can be taken immediately, it also presents detailed and accurate company data that pinpoints trends and energy usage patterns - the basis of any new energy management policy. A well constructed management system can save between five and ten per cent of consumption per annum with a payback of less than one year."

For the last three years Box telematics has designed, tested and developed the digital energy monitoring system UtilityBox. Essentially, this works as a two-way communication device that allows organisations to transfer and retrieve data across a 'wire-free' network, which is not only cheaper, faster and more efficient but also has the ability to monitor virtually anything.

Proactive sensors

UtilityBox uses a system of proactive sensors which flag-up any potentially costly failures before they occur, by monitoring and controlling pressure, temperature, flow rate and energy usage levels. The company believes that British industry's use of compressed air highlights the need for such systems.

"Compressed air accounts for about 10% of industry's total electricity usage, rising to 30% in some sectors. Energy efficiency calculations have shown that the operating costs of running multiple compressed air installations without some form of management control can be more than 30 per cent higher than they should be," says Langley. "The basic problem is system leakage. Calculations have been made which show that leakage rates exceeding 50% of site consumption are common across many industries. For users looking to save energy, eliminating these levels of leakage is the logical first step."

A big plus point with UtilityBox is its ability, within seconds of it happening, to forward SMS messages to engineers alerting them of abnormal energy consumption or flow rates. With pre-programmed monitoring levels, equipment failure can be easily avoided. Real-time monitoring can literally save thousands of pounds, since engineers can be on the way to solve a problem within minutes.

The technology can be extended to monitor parameters for planned maintenance applications. An estimated 60% of all UK manufacturing downtime costs are unplanned and could be avoided, saving UK businesses millions of pounds a year.

SigmaBox is a similar concept which allows engineers to remotely monitor analogue changes of state in temperature and fluid viscosity. Alarm thresholds are set at specific levels to ensure that any failure in solenoid and pump motors can be detected before any disruption is incurred to the manufacturing processes.

Box Telematics is also carrying out field trials on an exciting new development on predictive monitoring. This system uses complex signal processing algorithms and formulas applied to parameters. The system will be able to predict and pinpoint when equipment is likely to fail and the company anticipates this will generate significant cost savings for manufacturers throughout the industry.

As part of the system, and as a bulk service provider of wire-free data, the company can offer high quality data transmission at highly competitive rates, via a relationship with Orange's DN1800 data network.

Box Telematics
f102@industrialnetworking.co.uk