Reducing electricity costs will boost your bottom line. But unless you have the data, you cannot manage your energy costs effectively. In a recent survey conducted on best-in-class companies, it was noted that they were able to reduce their energy consumption by 15 percent year over year and have overall equipment effectiveness of 90 percent due to an energy-management program.

Starting an energy management program within your facility is the easiest and most effective way to drastically decrease your energy usage and increase overall efficiency.

In 2005 alone, Canadian industry saved $3.9 billion in energy costs, and it’s estimated that 30 percent of all business downtime is related to a power quality issue of some sort, such as power sags, swells, transients, harmonics and more.

These are a few steps to help you to begin:

• Ensure top management commitment.
• Form an energy committee from employees.
• Assign responsibilities.
• Prepare an energy file to track progress.
• •Make base-load energy measurements to identify potential areas.
• Monitor energy to quantify results and savings.

Sub-metering is the best way to give you an accurate indication of how and where you are using the energy within your facility. It also gives you the information to begin and sustain an energy-management program for your business.

Sub-meters can be installed either on the main incoming line to determine plant-wide performance or in different departments to determine areas of excessive energy use — and even down to individual pieces of equipment to determine efficiency before and after an upgrade.

Energy costs are increasing every year; managing these costs will help your company become more competitive. Industry surveys indicate that the average facility can reduce its energy consumption by 10 to 20 percent, and at least 30 percent of industry’s overall energy savings potential can be obtained without capital expense by simply making changes to procedures and behaviours.

Remember: you cannot save it unless you track it.

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Domenic Capobianco is product specialist with Carlo Gavazzi Canada Inc. For more information, visit www.gavazzionline.com.