This audio was created using Microsoft Azure Speech Services
Whether they consider themselves “green” or not, pretty much all companies today want to conserve energy – it saves money, so it makes sense. And I don’t think I’m going out on a limb by saying that all companies also want consistent, reliable access to power – because power outages are generally bad for business.
One tool that can help companies meet both of those goals and more is an energy and power management system. Such systems give you detailed visibility into your power use and the performance of your power delivery system. In doing so, they provide several benefits to organizations of most any size.
First among them is energy management. The old saying “you can’t manage what you can’t measure” certainly applies to the energy our buildings use. A good energy management system will monitor energy use across an entire building or campus and aggregate data into one, centralized view. It provides access to both real-time and historical energy use along with analytics to help you understand trends.
The systems put users in control of energy use, enabling them to view energy use down to the finest detail. This kind of data is critical in helping companies with issues ranging from improving energy efficiency and meeting sustainability goals to reducing demand at peak periods and avoiding or reducing power factor penalties.
A good energy management system will also provide energy cost allocation and billing features, ideal for situations where a building owner needs to charge back tenants or departments – or to simply educate them on their energy use patterns.
Power management systems can monitor not only your primary power system but any backup systems as well. The systems help minimize equipment malfunctions, power spikes and shutdowns, and proactively optimize your power network.
A power and energy management system can also track the performance of your electrical system and equipment. It provides real-time monitoring of electrical parameters, and alerts you to any anomalies. That helps you identify and address potential problems before the power goes out. The systems also give you data on how well your electrical system is delivering power to equipment and critical loads, helping to ensure optimal efficiency and safety for the electrical system and its various components.
An energy and power management system can also help you assess the quality of the power, identifying issues such as voltage sags, swells and transients. Such issues can reduce power efficiency, causing higher utility bills, as well as potentially damage equipment and cause expensive downtime.
As this Schneider Electric video shows, energy management tools can also help facility managers see and measure energy use throughout their building, deal with any changes and keep up with demands from multiple tenants with varying power requirements.
It’s also important to note that an energy and power management system is not a “rip and replace” proposition. You can typically add power and energy meters to your existing power infrastructure, to monitor and manage what you already have in place. And you can build on the systems over time to manage more and more of your infrastructure.
To learn more about the benefits of a power monitoring system, download this PDF that outlines eight key benefits of the systems. You’ll learn how an energy and power management system can help ensure you always have power when you need it.
