Tips to Reduce Peak Demand
March 11, 2017If you are a company trying to reduce energy consumption and save money, there are a few areas you should consider. Advances in energy-saving technology have made it easier to track consumption and pinpoint spots for improvements. Here a few decisions you can make to reduce the peak demand in your company:
Energy-Efficient Equipment Saves Energy AND Money
The benefits of switching to energy efficient devices reap almost immediate benefits. Also, downsizing from over-sized equipment allows for lighter loads and lighter loads means less demand. Units marked for energy efficiency are becoming easier to find as the market and demand grows.
Duty Cycling and Rescheduling Loads
We combined these two steps because their restructuring can be achieved with similar plans. Scheduling and synchronizing a facility’s machinery to run when factory demand is low could streamline other processes. Analyze when your machinery is absolutely necessary to run, and create a hierarchy or priority system if possible. Cooling and heating elements are often the most used systems and planning their usage could reap benefits.
This works in conjunction with duty cycling as only the machines needed to run during a particular process should be run. Obviously, some systems cannot be scheduled in this way, but analyzing which systems can is worth the work.
Running Alternate Power Sources
Normally, you think of solar, wind, and hydro as the only alternate power sources, but in this instance, we are referring to backup power. If a separate power source can shoulder part of the load during peak hours, you may also achieve savings. Monitor and see if your company can track any improvements in cost or consumption during peak demand.
If you are looking for more power monitoring solutions for your business, EMR Associates is the only option you’ll need. We are leaders in our industry and the premier manufacturer’s representative for SCADA, metering, transformer and variable frequency drives for industrial and commercial facilities in the central & southeast United States. We are also the number one choice for uninterruptible power, cooling, racks, monitoring, and maintenance for mission critical facilities in the Southeast.