Energy efficiency in manufacturing is a growing concern. In addition to helping companies improve their carbon footprint, it helps reduce ongoing costs and optimize equipment operations. However, optimal power distribution and management is often a more complex undertaking than many realize.
Electrical waste is common, and power-related disruptions can be difficult to catch until it’s too late. Despite these challenges, positive change is possible. Smart technologies provide a way forward where conventional methods have failed to drive meaningful improvements.
How Smart Technology Improves Industrial Power Distribution
The smart technology umbrella covers a wide range of innovations, including the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). While such tech may require significant upfront investment, it can yield several long-term benefits.
The most straightforward advantage of smart power management systems is their ability to minimize waste. Many facilities consume more energy than they need because their distribution network cannot account for fluctuations over time. Smart alternatives can recognize changing factors that impact efficiency and automatically adapt to run equipment while using as little electricity as possible.
This adaptability lets a single smart thermostat reduce HVAC bills by 8% on average. Applying similar systems on an industrial scale will produce even more substantial savings.
Along the same lines, AI-enabled transformers can recognize changes in which parts of the facility use the most power at a given moment. They can then direct more energy toward high consumers and reduce distribution to low-demand zones to ensure all generated electricity goes to value-creating workflows.
The same real-time functionality enabling such efficiency also lets smart power systems alert manufacturers of emerging issues. For example, they may warn employees of incoming maintenance concerns to reduce repair costs. Alternatively, they could detect cut wires, unexpected shutdowns, or other emergencies and notify all stakeholders to enable fast, effective responses.
Identifying problems quickly can reduce safety and efficiency concerns in an unforeseen incident. The added safety and transparency can also justify savings elsewhere.
For example, it could allow manufacturers to use live front transformers, which cost less than dead front alternatives but pose more threats. An IoT warning system would account for those risks, automatically alerting employees of nearby hazards and letting enterprises safely use these cheaper options.
Smart technologies boost manufacturing energy efficiency by making renewables more viable. One of the biggest obstacles to renewable power is its intermittency — it cannot produce electricity on demand, so generation may not align with peak consumption. IoT and AI solutions can work around the intermittency through adaptive distribution.
IoT sensors can detect when each piece of equipment needs more or less power. An AI model can then divert electricity to various systems as necessary while sending any excess to battery storage. Similarly, the system can store surplus energy from discrepancies during high generation but low demand.
When usage rises above current generation levels, smart tech can introduce the stored electricity from batteries to the local grid. As a result, manufacturers can implement renewables without waste or demand gaps.
It’s also worth noting that smart technologies generate specific, usable digital data by nature. This information enables real-time adjustments and warnings but can also serve a larger purpose. Manufacturers can collect it to inform comprehensive energy audits, revealing additional improvement opportunities.
Combining participation in energy audit programs with smart power management systems can reduce costs by 10% each quarter. Such savings have let large facilities achieve a payback period of just two years.
As manufacturers collect more data on their power distribution and consumption, any AI analyses will yield increasingly accurate results. Consequently, exponential long-term gains and optimizations become possible.
How to Implement Smart Power Technologies Effectively
As helpful as smart tech can be it requires careful planning and implementation to reach its full potential.
Here’s how manufacturers can approach this technology to drive tangible results.
The first step in improving energy efficiency in manufacturing is to recognize relevant opportunities. Smart tech is a vast category, and every facility is different, so not all use cases will deliver the same results in each situation. Manufacturers must identify existing inefficiencies to ensure tech investments align with real issues.
An energy audit is a good place to start. The Department of Energy runs more than 50 facilities providing no-cost assessments to qualifying manufacturers, and those that don’t qualify can usually find third-party auditors without high fees. Performing one of these tests will reveal where a power distribution system falls short, which may be an ideal place to install smart energy management solutions.
Once businesses know where and how they’ll use smart technology, they should compare available options. Compatibility with existing systems is the most important consideration, but manufacturers should pay attention to a few other factors as well.
They should select a solution using an IoT communication protocol suitable for their working environment. 5G cellular networks offer speeds up to 10 gbs per second and sub-second latencies, making them ideal for highly interconnected facilities.
However, a factory that already uses Wi-Fi or LPWAN should opt for the same network to ensure interoperability with other devices.
Cybersecurity is another pressing concern, considering manufacturing experienced 25.7% of all cyberattacks in 2023. While smart power distribution systems are beneficial in many ways, they also open once-air-gapped infrastructure to hacking-related threats. Addressing such risks begins with selecting IoT devices with built-in security features like data encryption, secure update protocols, and multi-factor authentication.
Manufacturers can also improve security by hosting IoT systems on a separate network from other devices and data. This practice is known as segmentation and ensures an IoT breach won’t jeopardize more sensitive systems. Up-to-date anti-malware software and automated network monitoring solutions are also ideal.
Finally, manufacturers should temper their approach to smart tech investments. IoT and AI can be expensive and difficult to master. Starting small and expanding slowly as facilities begin to see a return and learning from past projects boost the chances of long-term success.
Invest in a single use case at a time, starting with the area that will yield the greatest improvements. Record any failures and successes to inform a better rollout of future technologies.
Smart Tech Revolutionizes Manufacturing Energy Efficiency
Power distribution efficiency is an often overlooked but critical optimization opportunity for modern manufacturers. Recognizing this need and learning how smart technologies can improve the area are the first steps toward lower costs and reduced carbon emissions.
While this technology does require care to deliver on its potential, it can be a game-changer when applied properly.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.com / Miha Creative
