How a factory audit can identify potential savings
In most manufacturing facilities, the top three operating expenses are labour, materials and energy, with energy often coming out as the highest cost.
A free energy reduction audit from AES will identify potential energy savings across your factory, helping you minimise your carbon footprint whilst improving your work environment and reducing costs.
What are the benefits of an energy reduction audit?
An energy audit might sound time-consuming and complex, especially if you have high volumes of machinery in operation. But understanding your energy use, identifying waste and pinpointing inefficiencies can help you make significant long-term savings.
With an energy audit, you’ll benefit from:
- Clear overview of your energy consumption
- Insights into areas of inefficiency
- Understanding where energy is being wasted
- Ideas for low-cost and immediate actions to save money
- Cost-benefit analysis for larger investments
An energy audit can guide your energy strategy, helping you achieve your sustainability goals and make huge cost savings.
What areas are covered by the factory audit?
An energy audit looks at everything from the efficiency of your light bulbs and how much energy is wasted heating empty spaces to voltage optimisation and machine efficiency. Some of the key areas we focus on include:
Lighting and electrical installations
Inefficient lighting and poor wiring can be a huge drain on your power. As part of our energy assessments, we look for opportunities to save energy through energy-efficient technologies, such as LED and induction lighting, motion sensors and automated lighting.
As we are CompEx accredited, we’re also able to design and install lighting solutions and electrical installations in hazardous and ATEX areas.
Machine efficiency
As well as ensuring your machines are operating at an optimum level, we look at how efficiency can be improved further. Three key ways we do this are voltage optimisation, variable speed drives (VSD) and energy-efficient motors.
Voltage optimisation – electricity suppliers in the UK provide electricity to commercial properties at 230v, with an allowed -5/+10% tolerance. This means that the voltage input into a business can be much higher than required. All equipment is designed to run at the most efficient levels, but poor control over the incoming voltage can significantly reduce efficiency. Voltage optimisation could cut your energy consumption by up to 20%, increasing your maximum output by 10% and prolonging the life and reliability of all your equipment.
Variable Speed Drives – VSDs convert incoming electrical supply into a variable frequency and voltage output for the motor to alter speed and torque. They provide meticulous control to ensure the correct production flow. The result is more efficient production lines, higher output levels, and lower energy consumption. Using a VSD to slow a pump motor or fan by 20% can make an energy saving of around 50%.
Motors – motors and drives are typically the largest energy consumer on a production line. Motors are often larger than the machinery requires, causing them to use power excessively, and these could be replaced with smaller motors to reduce power consumption.
Control and automation opportunities
Automation doesn’t just save you money on energy; it helps you improve production output to increase your top and bottom line. Automating your production lines improves reliability, minimises downtime, and provides a safer working environment.
In addition to our energy reduction audit, we can assess your production process and suggest areas where you will benefit most from control and automation. This will often centre around processes where equipment is unreliable or keeps breaking down.
What’s included in the energy report?
Once we’ve completed our initial assessment of your facility, we’ll provide you with a factory audit report of our findings. This will include details of:
- Areas of high energy consumption and scope for savings
- Most likely (and easiest) areas for attention
- Immediate no-cost or low-cost improvements
- Recommendations for improving lighting and electrical installations
- Recommendations for improving machine efficiency
- Recommendations for control and automation
- Potential return on investment for all our recommendations
We aim to provide recommendations that will offer an ROI within three to five years. If you are a multi-site operation, the cost savings and return on investment in energy reduction can be realised within a much shorter time.
Why choose AES for your factory audit?
Our services go beyond what you would usually expect from an electrical contractor. We’re specialists in working with manufacturers of all sizes, and our focus is on energy reduction and factory efficiency.
As well as conducting a comprehensive energy audit, we can design, install and maintain all lighting and electrical installations. We can also assist with designing and planning new factory builds, extensions, and control and automation solutions.
Our industry accreditations include NICEIC, CHAS, SafeContractor, IPAF and PASMA. We’re also CompEx accredited, meaning we can install and maintain electrical installations in hazardous and ATEX areas and ensure zones are classified correctly in line with DSEAR.
We can scale our services to meet the needs of your business, from ongoing planned maintenance to machinery installation and factory relocation.
Book your free site assessment today and let AES help you reduce your energy consumption and cost.