Addressing the risk of electrification

Business performance goes hand in hand with power availability in manufacturing, food and beverages, water, rail, chemical and other industries. However, ongoing change in the energy landscape can introduce power quality issues that pose risks to the reliability of electrical networks.

As companies push towards decarbonisation and digitalisation, technologies such as EV chargers, renewable energies and variable speed drives are cutting energy consumption and carbon footprint. The result is that electrical networks that were originally designed for predictable and lower-power patterns must now cope with higher loads and dynamic supply and demand.

Introducing new technologies is done with the best of intentions, but they can unintentionally affect power quality, leading to issues such as harmonics, low power factor, and phase imbalance. These conditions can result in increased apparent power consumption, overheating of equipment, and voltage disturbances — including flickering lights or unexpected shutdowns of sensitive electronic systems.

A smarter energy strategy

With all this in mind, it’s become critical for site managers to prioritise their electrical networks and create a strategy to future-proof their electrical networks for long-term protection of business continuity, profitability, safety, and sustainability.

It’s no longer enough to measure energy consumption alone, or reactively install some Power Factor Correction units, establishing a smarter energy strategy means gathering, tracking and analysing data to identify insights and improve performance.

For example, using submetering across a facility will provide deeper insight into the processes and times of day where energy consumption is high. This can identify opportunities to save energy without compromising on productivity, for example by understanding variance in of energy in manufactured products or the working practices of sets of shift workers. The right visibility and insights at the asset level helps businesses progress meaningfully towards Net Zero targets.

One important consideration when adding meters into the facility for sub metering, is that it’s worth investing in meters that allow for the measurement of key power quality indicators such as harmonics and power factor. These have the ability to sense micro disturbances and their root cause, helping to diagnose power quality issues.

It's not unusual to find sites where Power Factor Correction units, Harmonic Filters and Voltage Optimisers have been installed and have since been taken offline and are now sitting on facility networks, unmaintained, and unmonitored. Often these technologies were installed with the best intentions at the time, but they may have been superseded by installation of new loads and new technologies in the factory over time. To get the best performance from these types of equipment, it’s critical to monitor the network as it evolves and adjust power quality systems so that they continue to deliver long term performance and impact.

Gathering data from critical systems

Looking at reliability and efficient maintenance, deploying sensors on critical assets will provide deeper insight into operations and support a move to condition-based maintenance of electrical assets. In turn, operational managers can react to electrical stresses before they escalate into equipment failures. This proactive approach also strengthens the network’s capacity to absorb new technology.

In low voltage switchgear and motor control centres, it’s never been easier to retrofit sensors to measure factors such as temperature and humidity. In addition, the latest circuit breakers often have untapped diagnostic data available. All of these data sources provide indications of asset health and risk of impending failure and inform maintenance practices.

In high voltage assets, it is worth deploying sensing technology that continuously monitors for partial discharge (PD) risk. One in four medium-voltage failures involves PD, which can lead to significant periods of unplanned outage. For example, one pharmaceutical manufacturer reported a PD incident on a switchgear unit, leading to a major safety incident, an unplanned halt of production for several days and a need for temporary switching arrangements over the 12-week lead time for replacement switchgear. The total financial impact for this single event was £450k due to lost production, reactive costs, new switchgear and installation – a cost that is avoidable with an early warning from the latest monitoring systems. This could have been avoided with a modern continuous monitoring system.

There are four steps to a smarter energy strategy:

• Audit – analysing energy use across all assets and establishing the current status and criticality of assets. This is the essential first step before mapping out a path to meet future goals and achieving smarter performance. 
• Digitalise – with the status of assets in place, the next step is setting priorities to modernise, upgrade and retrofit assets with digital connectivity, starting with critical systems. This step will provide operators with data to see more, know more, and drive performance where it matters most. 
• Visualise – with data in place, it’s possible to analyse trends and track patterns in asset health to identify and mitigate risks to the electrical network. 
• Optimise – recording data is vital, but don't stop there. Deploy a continuous process of reviewing insights from operational performance and taking data-driven decisions to improve operational and energy efficiency, and asset life. 

For businesses without extensive in house electrical resources, these steps may seem daunting. They require knowledge and skills of electrical technology, awareness of current and future digital technology and regulations. They also require experience of operation, maintenance and monitoring of industrial assets and possibly also industry-specific certifications. In addition, a successful strategy requires an understanding of long-term objectives, availability of budget and organisation constraints.   

Typically, in-house operations managers are stretched and need to keep their focus on the full-time job of ensuring optimal production, profitability and safe operations. Taking time out of the business to upskill may not be practical so calling in an expert in asset management will fast-track development of an asset strategy. The partner can act as an extension to the in-house team to provide guidance where and when it’s needed. They will bring experience from many industrial sites to recommend the best course of action to meet business objectives – whether that is delivering an urgent repair on a critical system or identifying where to deploy sensor technologies to achieve maximum benefit within a budget.

The important factors when looking for an electrical asset management partner are: extensive experience of maintenance, monitoring and operations in the field; certifications covering electrical and industrial settings; and an unbiased, open approach. A good partner will be technology-agnostic, which means they are not tied to a specific technology and will suggest the best approach to meet their customer’s goals.

Another essential factor in today’s digital age is expertise in digital technologies. What that means for a site manager is being able to draw on advice on where and how to deploy sensors, which technologies and platforms will provide interoperability over the long term, and how best to interpret data.  

Improving long-term reliability As the UK drives towards Net Zero targets, electrical networks can’t be an afterthought. A smarter energy strategy is central to cutting energy consumption, improving the efficiency of manufacturing and protecting valuable uptime. By working with an asset management partner like Acteniq, operations managers in industry can gain a competitive edge, futureproof their business, and be free to unlock the full potential of electrification and automation.

Site managers can get a view on smart their energy strategy is within minutes by with a free energy IQ assessment that benchmarks operations across energy, assets, and process. 

Nathan Ghundoo is operations director at Acteniq

acteniq.com/energy-iq