Managing energy – new report from Siemens

After raw materials, energy costs are often the most significant area in manufacturing and set to rise further. With this in mind, Siemens undertook a survey of 600 firms to see how they approach energy management – the results of which are discussed in a recent issue of Engineering magazine. In the survey, only 69% of energy managers thought that their company was taking energy usage seriously, although many were planning to make energy saving investments in manufacturing technology. Such energy managers are involved throughout the company from gathering initial data to looking at the whole product lifecycle in a holistic approach. The article particularly looks at an important new area for energy saving – ‘the utilisation of intelligent process automation in industrial plants’ where estimates of energy savings up to 15 percent can be achieved. For more on the importance and role of an energy specialist or manager read the full article at http://www.engineeringmagazine.co.uk/features/Acompetitivefuture.html