Unlocking insights on energy efficiency & asset management through field devices

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Industrial energy use accounts for one-third of the world’s total energy demand. Rising concerns about climate change further heightened the importance of energy efficiency. Policymakers ticked energy efficiency as the number one priority. The 1970’s first oil shock and subsequent oil crisis gave enough reasons for operational effectiveness with energy efficiency and asset management in the industrial energy sector. Together asset & energy management bring complementary benefits, especially in process management. Field devices can add a great degree of help in unlocking the potential of energy efficiency and asset management.

Here is a case around two important points:

1. Energy efficiency insights can be achieved by knowing exactly what is happening in the field.
2. Asset management by making sure that the essential recordings are not lost.

To know exactly what is happening with the process is more than measurement. It needs field devices to follow identical process specifications. This is good but it has an underlining impact on rigidity in process measurement. Earlier I published my thoughts on benefits of agile process measurement. To achieve efficiency and flexibility, it’s imperative to look for field devices which do not degrade accuracy with variations in measurement.

Lets take example of Pressure Transmitter “A” &  Pressure Transmitter “B”.

Pressure transmitter A is a traditional single span transmitter. It has a tendency to begin to degrade its accuracy as the pressure shift towards a low range of % upper reading limit (URL).

Pressure transmitter B is a multi-span transmitter. It has smart features which automatically transition to the most appropriate calibration curve while maintaining the same accuracy. Representative statistics show improvement of 0.14% to 1.77%  in reading as the process pressure shifts towards the lower %URL.

With improvements in readings, Pressure transmitter B certainly has capabilities to know what is exactly happening with the energy intensive process. The insights will help to locate the untapped potential of energy efficiency.

Diagnostic features, recognizing abnormalities, and keeping services records contributes significantly to effective asset management. Tracking abnormalities is essential to detect problems at an early stage so as to trigger improvement actions. Keeping service records is either in manual or often ignored until the device malfunctions or stops. Digital, built-in clocks bring an additional advantage as it tracks the total number of days the device powered up over its lifetime. Furthermore, the data carefully stays within the devices and is not lost.

Simple yet powerful functionality brings tremendous value to users. It allows users to do periodic maintenance scheduling on the devices themselves. With its digital capabilities, field devices bring effectiveness to asset management.

I believe these insights are useful to locate untapped potential for effective management of energy efficiency & assets. This will work to bridge the energy efficiency gap. I hope you have enjoyed reading, please leave your comments in the area below.