August 27, 2022
01:35
Forgotten, the search for the best energy supply price. Consumption needs to be reduced. If possible without touching the production.
In companies, the time is clearly over for renegotiating the electricity supply contract to try to reduce the amount of the bill as much as possible. No more supplier dares to cut prices, which he has no more control over than his customers. Moreover, the length of this crisis means that buyers now find themselves completely without cover.
The time is therefore drastic reduction in consumption. “Clearly, currently, cost reduction can no longer be done on energy, except by reducing consumption in significant proportions”, notes Florent Hainaut, CEO of Bridge Water, a consultancy firm specializing in the reduction of costs and overhead costs.
It is necessary to take advantage of the current trend towards teleworking to rethink its organization and reduce the necessary volumes.
In the short term, reducing consumption therefore involves… switching off the lights! “Reduce occupied, heated and lighted surfaces, for example. We must take advantage of the current trend towards teleworking to rethink our organization and reduce the necessary volumes”, he continues. And, as the German government imposes for the weeks and months to come, the drastic reduction in consumption “useless ” of energy, like thenight lighting of certain signs, heating in businesses…
Decline in production
The other possibility is to reduce production, as do foundries or manufacturers of fertilizers in particular, very greedy in electricity or gas. But with the risk of permanently lose customers international ones, in particular, which are not necessarily confronted with the soaring prices that we are experiencing in Europe.
But before stopping a machine completely to reduce the electricity bill, there is still a way to save some money. The Belgian-French company Ewattch offers sensors coupled with artificial intelligence to optimize electrical consumption in the industrial process.
“Most SMEs do not have a very clear vision of their energy consumption. How electricity is consumed: what are the most important items”, says Mathieu Chabot, manager of Ewattch in Belgium.
Optimisation, machine par machine
“Most SMEs do not have a very clear vision of their energy consumption. How electricity is consumed: what are the most important items”
By installing sensors in workshops and on machines, Ewattch claims energy savings of 20 to 30%. “Just by one optimal adjustment of the machine, a more rational use of electricity“, comments Chabot. The tool should make it possible to analyze in depth the production process to see if each kilowatt used is really necessary, without loss of quality.
Ewattch equips more than a hundred companies worldwide, including ten in Belgium. The company recently received Noshaq’s support during a capital increase of 3 million euros.
Scalable, the solution proposed by Ewattch allows, by processing the collected data, not only an optimization of the electricity consumption, machine by machine, but also of the production. “If one tool is more demanding than another, it will probably be appropriate to switch production to that one. But we can also determine why one machine is less productive than another, continues Mathieu Chabot. Showing the electrical consumption of a machine also means measuring its use, its performance, and making the direct operator aware of this.”
In the longer term, this energy crisis is also an opportunity to see a little further and toinvest to reduce its energy dependence in the future. “Investment in photovoltaic panels, for example, is undoubtedly relatively heavy in this period of general cost increase but, given the duration of this crisis and current prices, the return on investment has never been interesting”, notes Florent Hainaut.
The summary
- The energy bill has never been so high.
- To try to reduce it, it is necessary to limit consumption.
- Before stopping the machines, it is still possible to optimize the consumption of the production process.
