Article by Pornphimol Winyuchakrit (Ph.D.), Sustainable Energy and Low Carbon Research Unit
Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology, Thammasat University
Improvements in energy policy, energy efficiency, and renewable energy are an important keyword in the industrial management. Many industrial companies are beginning or accelerating to reduce their energy consumption. These efforts are driven by several reasons, especially increasing energy cost and reduce environmental pollution. Therefore, most of the industrial enterprises pay much more attention to improve the efficient energy data management which will become a leader of their future existence.
Energy management system (EnMS), that is identified to be the necessary processes in ISO 50001:2011, is a system used to monitor, measure and control energy load. However, before the other things, the company should have a basic understanding of what data you have and what data you may need to actively monitor and gather. Therefore, the energy controlling with their monitoring, recording, analyzing, and reporting of energy data is an essential component for implementation and operation of the EnMS.
Usually, the structure of EnMS, that is recognized as a continuous process, is comprised of three main processes – energy efficiency consulting, energy management and energy efficiency improvement – to identify the potential of energy conservation (see Fig.1). Stocktaking and analysis of own consumption are the basis for that. The results probably hint energy saving potentials. Also, the company’s energy policy and planning are required to manage and improve the permanent process of the EnMS together with to set the goals of energy saving.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY CONSULTING
Regarding the recording of company’s energy data, the energy consultant will play a role in review process which should begin an analysis of no-cost and low-cost opportunities to reduce the company’s energy consumption. The energy consultant team should have a good understanding of market fundamentals and technical analysis which will help the company to identify the opportunities as well as chances to obtain low-cost energy conservation implementations. Therefore, knowledgeable people should be appointed to represent the company’s energy consultant team.
ENERGY MANAGEMENT
Energy management process is separated into two sections of the administrative section to announce the energy policy and planning of the company and the operational section to implement the energy efficiency measures meeting the company’s energy conservation target set by the energy planner.
Robotron. “Energy management in industry”. Retrieved November 15, 2017, from http://www.robotron.eu/businessunits/industry/energymanagement.html
ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENT
The group of people under the operational section of energy management process must work closely together with the energy efficiency improvement, which they are often the same people group. Commonly, the people who operate in the industrial process are the important bearer of information and experience in the monitored and measures process data collected in a company. Errors can be identified by this people group. Comparison of energy data before and after implementation should be analyzed and passed to check and review again by the internal auditor under the energy efficiency consulting process. Also, energy conservation implementation must be evaluated. Then, the process will be rerun in the loop again when inefficient energy use is indicated.
