Managing electricity to reduce costs

CIM Bulletin, Vol. 80, No. 906, 1987

T. WILLIAMS Ontario Hydro and I. CLAUZIER, University of Ottawa

A new method of managing electricity to reduce costs and improve profits is discussed. Before taking steps to better manage electricity, it is essential to understand the terms peak demand and energy and their effect on an electrical bill. Knowing how electricity is presently used in the plant is the important first step. This goes beyond knowing how much electricity is used at each time of day, the individual contribution of every plant process to the total plant load must be known. At this point, each process is ranked according to importance to production in order to identify possible savings opportunities. These improvements can then be implemented by simply improving operations or in some cases, through the use of an automatic control system.

Keywords: Electricity, Management, Plant management, Computer application.