IN
DEGREE PROJECT ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT, SECOND CYCLE, 30 CREDITS
STOCKHOLM SWEDEN 2020,
ENERGY MANAGEMENT
INFORMATION SYSTEMS: An
industrial dynamics-based analysis
Energy transition through innovation and digitalization for the Industry 4.0
VITO EDOARDO DI VIRGILIO
KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE
www.kth.se
Master of Science Thesis Department of Energy Technology
KTH 2020
ENERGY MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS:
An industrial dynamics-based analysis
Energy transition through innovation and digitalization for the Industry 4.0
TRITA-ITM-EX 2020:507
Vito Edoardo Di Virgilio
Approved
08/09/2020
Examiner
Viktoria Martin, PhD
Supervisor
Viktoria Martin, PhD
Industrial Supervisor
Thomas Leseigneur
Contact person
Viktoria Martin, PhD
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Abstract
Decarbonizing the energy consumptions related to the industrial sector is extremely difficult with todays’ technologies. That is why, in industry, the priority focus is for now put on improving the energy efficiency, or the quantity of energy needed to develop a defined amount of product.
Among the various tools that can improve the energy efficiency of an industrial site, a valid option is represented by software-based controlling system that manages the consumption of an industrial plant through sensors that track key performance indicators, optimize the processes from an energy standpoint and continuously follow any energy-related data, completely digitalizing the whole factory.
The scope of this thesis consists in analysing this digital tool – known as Energy Management Information System (EMIS) – in the totality of the aspects that determine its value. This is why, three angles – technical, economic and operational – are being considered in this analysis.
Given the recent maturity of EMIS solutions, this new technology still represents an – albeit quite mature – innovation in the field of energy efficiency in industry. Thus, industrial dynamics concepts are also applied to the investigation, since they represent a systematic methodology to assess the impact and diffusion of innovations, as well as their margin for development.
The thesis could identify the main parameters that enable the success of EMIS as a valid
solution to reduce energy consumption in the industrial segment, on top of proposing axes
for future improvement.
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Sammanfattning
Att minska utsläppet från energiförbrukning inom industrisektorn är med dagens teknologi extremt svårt. Pågrund av detta, prioriterar industrierna istället fokuset på att förbättra energieffektiviteten, alternativt mängden energi som behövs för att utveckla ett definierat antal produkter.
Bland de flertal olika verktyg som kan förbättra energieffektiviteten på en
industrianläggning, är ett välgrundat alternativ representerat av ett mjukvarubaserat
kontrollsystem som hanterar konsumtionen av en industrianläggning genom sensorer som spårar viktiga prestandaindikatorer, optimerar processerna ur energisynpunkt samt
kontinuerligt följer all energirelaterad data och därmed digitaliserar hela fabriken.
Avhandlingen omfattar en analysering av detta digitala verktyg - känt som “Energy
Management Information System (EMIS)” - i totalaliteten av de aspekter som bestämmer dess värde. Därför övervägs tre vinklar – den tekniska, ekonomiska och operativa – i denna analys.
Med tanke på EMIS-utvecklingens senaste framsteg representerar denna nya teknik fortfarande en – om än en ganska mogen – innovation inom området energieffektivitet i industrin. Därav tillämpas även industriella dynamikkoncept till utredningen, eftersom de representerar en systematisk metod för att bedöma effekterna och spridningen av innovation, liksom deras marginal för utveckling.
Avhandlingen kan identifiera de viktigaste parametrarna som möjliggör framgången för
EMIS som en giltig lösning för att minska energiförbrukningen i industrisegmentet, utöver
föreslag för framtida förbättringar.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude towards all the colleagues that have contributed to make this master a wonderful journey, throughout which any person met left a precious contribute to my personal growth.
A big thank goes to Mr. Thomas Leseigneur, my internship supervisor and director of innovation at Actemium. Thank you for having granted me the maximum freedom to take any possible action towards the success of my investigation, dedicating me all the requested resources and support.
I want to thank Professor Viktoria Martin, who followed my work and guided it while always leaving space for my personal initiative. Your feedbacks have been essential to reach a good organization of the acquired material, structuring it in a cohesive and linear speech.
Last but not least, I want to thank my family for the continuous support they provided me in
every of the possible forms. Without their trust in me I would not have reached any relevant
result, and I like to use every available occasion to remind this to them – and myself.
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Table of Content
Abstract ... 2
Sammanfattning ... 3
Acknowledgements ... 4
List of Figures ... 7
List of Tables ... 7
Foreword ... 8
Chapter 1: Introduction ... 10
1.1 What is an EMIS? Why it is relevant to Energy Efficiency in Industry? ... 10
1.2 EMIS’ maturity on the market ... 11
1.2 Barriers ... 13
1.3 Objective of the Thesis work ... 15
Chapter 2: Methodology ... 16
Chapter 3: Context ... 19
3.1 Context of the Energy Transition in the Industrial Sector ... 19
3.2 Industrial Productivity/Energy Intensity ... 21
3.3 Policy coverage ... 22
3.4 The Digitalization’s impact on the energy transition ... 23
3.5 Market-Ready Industrial Solutions ... 25
3.5.1 Energy Audits ... 25
3.5.2 Industrial Energy Efficiency Networks ... 27
3.5.3 Energy Management Information Systems ... 29
Chapter 4: The analysed solution - Energy Management Information Systems ... 30
4.1 From a Measurement System to an EMIS ... 30
4.2 EMIS’ deployment methodology ... 32
4.3 EMIS Technical & Operational Characteristics ... 34
4.4 Operational Dossier ... 36
4.5 Use Cases ... 39
4.5.1 Use Case #1: “How ArcelorMittal saved 340 k€/year by digitalizing its energy management” ... 42
4.5.2 Use Case #2: “How to reduce steam consumption in a paper factory by 4,5%” ... 45
4.5.3 Conclusions based on the collected use cases ... 47
Chapter 5: Industrial Dynamics-based Discussion ... 48
5.1 The importance of an Industrial Dynamics analysis ... 48
5.2 Transformation pressures influencing EMIS adoption ... 49
5.2.1 MEGA-TREND #1: The Digital Transition ... 49
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5.2.2 MEGA-TREND #2: The Energy Transition ... 51
5.2.3 Transformation pressures impacting EMIS barriers ... 52
5.2.4 Negative transformation pressures observed in the analyzed Use Cases ... 52
5.3 EMIS as a system of unbalanced components ... 54
5.4 Bottlenecks ... 56
5.5 Diffusion of the Innovation ... 58
5.5.1 The rate of diffusion of the EMIS ... 59
5.5.2 EMIS’ environment and communication channels ... 60
5.5.4 S-curve analysis... 60
5.6 Lock-ins in EMIS adoption creating path-dependence ... 62
5.7 Follow-up discussion conclusions ... 64
5.7.1 EMIS projected trends ... 64
5.7.2 The strategy of Actemium – Vinci Energies ... 64
5.7.3 Margin for future improvements ... 65
Chapter 6: Conclusions ... 68
6.1 Lessons Learned ... 68
6.2 Future Research ... 69
References ... 70
Appendix I: The EMIS Survey ... 73
Appendix II: The operational Dossier ... 81
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List of Figures
Figure 1: Evolution in the number of ISO500001 certification, 2011-17. (International Energy Agency, 2017).
... 12
Figure 2: Industrial Final Energy consumption and fuel shares. Current situation & projection following the IEA Sustainable Development Scenario, 2010-2030 (IEA, 2019). ... 19
Figure 3: Industry direct CO2 emissions (IEA, 2019). ... 20
Figure 4: Industrial Energy Productivity by region now, and projected according to the IEA SDS, years 2000- 2030 (IEA, 2019). ... 21
Figure 5: Decomposition of energy consumption in the industry and service sectors in major economies, 2000-2017. ... 22
Figure 6: Application of digital technologies and strategies in industry (IEA, 2017). ... 23
Figure 7: The Energy Audit flow chart (Hooke et al., 2004) ... 26
Figure 8: The Energy Efficiency Network Process (OECD/IPEEC, 2017). ... 27
Figure 9: The different components of an EMIS (ATEE, 2016). ... 30
Figure 10: The Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle (M. Dowding, 2020). ... 32
Figure 11: METRON's model for a digitally based energy transition (METRON, 2020) ... 39
Figure 12: Methodology and functioning, METRON EMIS. (METRON, 2020) ... 40
Figure 13: Creation of the reference models, methodology. (METRON, 2020). ... 43
Figure 14: Simplified model of the factory's process (METRON, 2020). ... 46
Figure 15: Projected vs adjusted energy consumptions. (Source: METRON). ... 47
Figure 16: The combinatorial effect of new digital technologies in industry. (WEF, 2016). ... 49
Figure 17: Main value drivers for the industry 4.0. (P.L. Caylar et al., 2016). ... 50
Figure 18: E. Rogers proposed distribution of the innovation absorbers. (J. Prachi, 2020). ... 58
Figure 19: The s-curve of performance and functionality improvement. (N. Thomond et al., 2015)... 61
Figure 20: General scheme of an EPC. (Transparense, 2020). ... 66
List of Tables
Table 1: Summary of the EMIS Survey (See Appendix I) ... 35Table 2: Outcomes of use case #1 ... 44
Table 3: Results of use case #2 ... 47
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Foreword
Actemium is the Industrial Brand of Vinci Energies, and is an Energy Service Company with a turnover of 2.5 b€, present in 380+ Business Units and 40+ Countries worldwide.
I am performing my internship in the main venue of the Group in Paris, directly under the responsibility of the Innovation and Strategy Director, Mr. T. Leseigneur.
One of the largest problems identified by Actemium consists in find ways to boost energy efficiency in its Business Units, which are industrial manufacturing factories that trust Actemium to have energy-related services. In general, to apply energy efficiency in the industrial process is very complicated, since each situation is quite specific and most of the times the companies prefer not to show their processes to protect their trade secret.
Thanks to a previous analysis, a possible and feasible way to address this issue has been identified by applying Energy Management Information Systems. In fact, EMIS don’t require a very deep study of the industrial process (like audits or production analysis) and have the advantage of supporting energy efficiency suggestions through objective data that are provided by sensors.
Several use cases demonstrate that EMIS can immediately reduce consumptions of 5 to 15%. On top of that, their biggest advantage consists in the awareness effect: in fact, once that the company’s owner (or maintenance director) has clear data and trends in his tablet, it is easier to convince him to proceed with energy or CO2 reduction works.
The main objective of this internship consists in finding ways to adapt Energy Management Information Systems solutions with the Business Units of the industrial brand of Vinci Energies, Actemium. The BUs consist in companies (each owning and managing several factories) that work various types of industrial processes from all sectors: feed, food &
beverage, automotive, oil & gas, pharmaceutical and so on.
In order to address this various scenario, I worked with the responsible for Innovation &
Strategy to draw a “roadmap” agenda (subject to changes due to the COVID-19 crisis):
1) Map all the current solutions available for Energy Management Information Systems in the industrial sector and identify which are the more indicated for each business unit, studying the main parameters that are relevant for the EMS to be successful for each application case;
2) Investigate the main necessities of the business units, their demands and the state of the art in terms of digitalization of their sites. For example, some BU already expressed the necessity of finding a way to adapt their current SCADA system with a more complete Energy Management Information System. In this case, I should investigate how to integrate the EMIS architecture with already existing SCADA or other monitoring systems;
3) Define standard functionalities.
After having analysed the EMIS main parameters, it will be necessary to define
general characteristics and functions that can serve all the Business Units of the
Actemium – Vinci Energies network.
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The goal of this sub-part is to study the possibility of proceeding with Energy Performance Contracting, an interesting subject that is gaining traction recently in the energy efficiency/energy transition field.
4) Development of a demonstrator, to illustrate the subject in concrete terms.
This tool can be in the form of a report, an interactive guide, power point presentation or the mix of all those solutions. The goal is to proceed with internal formation for all the technicians and Business Unit Managers of the Vinci Energies – Actemium network, to boost energy efficiency inside the network on an International level (mainly France, Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands, with possible involvement of Nordic countries thanks to already existing partnerships with major local companies).
More details of this last point will be provided during the development of the stage, depending on the major strategic decisions that will be taken and the feedback given by the Business Units or the Pilot Projects.
5) Proceed with – at least 2 – Pilot Projects, in order to implement an EMS to a real process and have a technical feedback, but also to evaluate the site’s reaction (employees’ adaptation, productivity impact, economic knockbacks and so on).
[cancelled due to the COVID-19 crisis]
In order to proceed with the strategy, I will present my work and the EMS innovation opportunity to several internal and external events. For example, I will present at the Energy Efficiency International Club in the Netherlands at the end of the month (29-30/01), where all the Actemium companies will meet to share best practices for energy efficiency and update on what is new in the sector in terms of energy efficiency.
This is a procedure used by the Innovation & Strategy brand team of Vinci Energies to
spread its findings and suggestions throughout its worldwide network.
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Chapter 1: Introduction
In this section it is presented a background of this Thesis’ work, with the aim of stating what will be the main issue addressed by this thesis: why Energy Management & Information Systems are not widely adopted in the industrial sector, or how to improve their presence.
To begin with, it is pertinent to introduce what an EMIS is and why it represents a valuable tool to improve energy efficiency in the industrial sector. Paragraph 1.1 is dedicated to this, with the aim of providing just a setup context preliminary to a further, detailed analysis in chapters 3 and 4.
Then, a panorama of the status quo regarding EMIS’ market integration will be outlined (to be further discussed in Chapter 5).
Subsequently, the current barriers to a major EMIS’ deployment will be presented, to then explicit the objective of this Thesis’ work.
1.1 What is an EMIS? Why it is relevant to Energy Efficiency in Industry?
As it will be further described in Chapter 3.2, decreasing the energy intensity in industry is fundamental to reduce the overall sector’s energy consumptions. On top of that, as detailed in Chapter 3.4 (and resumed in Chapter 5.2.1), the Digital Transition has already established itself as a major trend. Data and software-driven changes in the sector are so impactful that it has been widely adopted the nomenclature of Industry 4.0.
In this context, Energy Management and Information Systems represent (as it will be deeply defined and analysed in Chapter 4) the only digitally based solution to improve energy efficiency in the industrial sector.
This, in a nutshell, explains the reasons behind the interest of analysing EMIS overall, better understanding their penetration level in the market, flaws and qualities, margins for future improvement.
When defining an EMIS, this Thesis work adopts the standards provided by NRCAN (“Natural Resources Canada”) and ATEE (“Association Technique Energie
Environnement”), respectively Canadian and French national agencies representing aworld-renowned reference in energy efficiency.
“An Energy Management Information System (EMIS) is an important element of a comprehensive energy management program. It provides relevant information to key individuals and departments that enables them to improve energy performance.”
(Hooke et al., 2004)
As mentioned, a deep and detailed investigation of what elements compose an EMIS, as
well as key characteristics, will be provided in Chapter 4.
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1.2 EMIS’ maturity on the market
It is very difficult to precisely estimate (with clear figures and data) the state of market diffusion of Energy Management and information Systems.
In fact, the environment in which EMIS are installed is quite reserved and the factory sites are normally covered by confidentiality and copyright clauses.
On top of that, an EMIS could be constituted by a series of different elements: starting from an energy monitoring adaptation of a pre-existing SCADA or monitoring system, to an Energy Management System applied through specific IoT sensors – designed for this use only.
It is extremely difficult to distinguish between the wide range of available solutions and industrial tools, and ultimately identify each company client utilizing such type of service.
The French organization ATEE (“Association Technique Energie Environnement”) studies and maps the National landscape regarding the market diffusion and the industrial implementation of several instruments related to the energy transition in the industrial sector, the EMIS’ being one of them.
Even the ATEE collided with the impossibility of producing a precise mapping of the EMISs’
diffusion state-of-the-art and decided to simply list all the identified solutions corresponding to the criteria for an Energy Management & Information System (that will be explicated further on in this Thesis work).
Up until the latest version of the dedicated report, ATEE identified 58 solutions operating in the French territory (ATEE, 2018), with companies producing even more than one solution, depending on the particular Business Units or the clients’ needs.
For these reasons, it is pertinent to follow the International Energy Agency’s proposed approach. In its work “Market Report Series: Energy Efficiency 2018” (IEA, 2018), when addressing energy management systems for industrial energy efficiency, the IEA analyzes the diffusion rate of EMIS by tracking the number of ISO50001 certifications implementation.
ISO50001 represents the global energy management standard, and in 2017 (the last available data) it reached a worldwide annual increase of 13% compared to the year 2016 (IEA, 2017).
Figure 1 shows the increasing number of ISO50001 certifications, initially driven by Germany
but now followed by the rest of Europe, and Asia (IEA, 2017).
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Figure 1: Evolution in the number of ISO500001 certification, 2011-17. (International Energy Agency, 2017).
The validation of this approach is supported by the fact that in order for an industrial company to obtain the ISO 50001 certification – thus tax reduction (IEA, 2017), a monitoring energy system must be put in place.
In the following Chapters – especially during the industrial dynamics S-curve analysis and
in the conclusions – the EMIS diffusion, as well as market maturity and potential growth, will
be addressed.
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1.2 Barriers
When analysing barriers to implement an EMIS, authoritative studies suggest putting the first focus on management.
In fact, an EMIS impacts multiple aspects of the factory’s organization: both the direct benefits related to its adoption, and the opportunities to increase in the long term both profitability and productivity. Thus, it can be difficult to identify savings if the management structure is not well inter-connected.
In other cases, energy efficiency improvement opportunities will be spotted by employees, yet saving actions will not be taken due to the lack of communication with managerial figures, able to take the adequate decision.
Below, a list of barriers to EMIS adoption:
• Organization
In most cases, lack of support from senior management is a huge building block preventing from the adoption of energy efficiency measures (OECD, 2014). In fact, most of the times interventions are only seen as an expense, a red line in the budget estimation. Thus, managers prefer to continue to focus on core activities such as production expansion or improvement, actions that are more trusted to produce a return on the investment (OECD, 2014).
• Limited knowledge
Most of companies often have close to no access to information about energy efficiency methodologies and technologies (OECD, 2014).
• Perceived risks
This point is linked to the previous one, as the problem of unfamiliarity with energy efficiency is associated with the implementation of best practices relative to core business projects.
• Low energy prices
Due to the energy or policy system, in some regions or contexts the companies face either very low energy prices, or lack of policies to reduce or decarbonize the energy consumption (OECD, 2014). This clearly acts as a disincentive to promote energy efficient actions.
• Poor understanding
Another weak point, due to the internal boundaries of an organization, consists in how to create support for an energy efficiency project. Since there are different stuffs responsible for each task, a barrier can be found (in non-oiled organizations) in making all the teams work in synergy (OECD, 2014).
• Limited finances
Due to a low experience in the topic of energy efficiency and its potential, companies
still in large majority believe in capital investment as a better source of growth
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compared to energy efficiency projects (OECD, 2014). This has the result of making them hesitant about investing in projects that do not have a primary focus on increasing production capacity and revenue.
• Perceived complexity
Implementing an EMIS can appear complex, especially when it can be required also
the installation of some hardware equipment (sensors, measurement
instrumentation…). This issue is particularly felt by SMEs (OECD, 2014).
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1.3 Objective of the Thesis work
It seems pertinent to conclude this introductory part with a clear statement of the problem addressed by this Thesis’ work, to then explain the adopted approach – this being the content of Chapter 2.
The main scope of this Thesis’ work consists in answering the following questions:
1) Why EMISs are still not widely adopted?
➔ How to improve their presence?
2) Why industrial manufacturing companies should choose EMIS?
➔ Why a certain specific type of EMIS is preferred to another?
Therefore, this Thesis’ work has the ambition of providing insights, detailed analysis, and useful tools to improve the diffusion of the innovation represented by EMIS.
In order to cope with that, barriers will be analysed both from a theoretical standpoint (paragraph 1.2) and from industrial company clients’ perspective (through internal interviews in Actemium – Vinci Energies and the study of relevant use cases).
Through a technical survey elaborated for the study, the EMIS solution will be defined and deeply investigated to understand each component and factor influencing its final value, as well as market attractivity.
Thanks to a dedicated dossier, the main EMIS elements that orientate the customer’s choice will be investigated.
Then, an analysis based on industrial dynamics’ tools will be applied to the innovation represented by EMIS, in order to better understand how to overcome barriers and transform the industrial manufacturing companies’ necessities and pain points into market opportunities.
Finally, it is worth mentioning two main limitations of this Thesis work:
1) The COVID-19 crisis:
As well as much larger negative consequences, the crisis severely impacted the output of this essay. In fact, all the scheduled internal use cases (practical installation of an EMIS) have been cancelled by the worldwide emergency.
Needless to say, this caused a loss in the added value produced by this work – even if practical examples were still analysed and described in Chapter 4.5.
2) Closing confidentiality of the industrial manufacturing environment
This issue does not address my personal work, but rather the overall “social” scenario
in which EMIS’ are used, on top of complexity constraints – both these points already
mentioned in Chapter 1.2.
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Chapter 2: Methodology
Before progressing with the Thesis work, a preliminary clarification on the approach and the methodology used in the development of this essay is due.
After the initial introduction, Chapter 3 focuses on explaining the context of energy efficiency in industry through current available data and projections on energy consumption, the definition of main topics and trends, as well as a detailed panorama of currently available solutions to reduce energy waste in industry.
Given that Chapter 4 concentrates on EMIS, the last paragraph of the context chapter (3.5) highlights and describes rather what are the alternative means to energy efficiency, apart from the one analysed in this Thesis’ work.
The scope of Chapter 3 is to exactly contextualize the environment in which EMIS operate.
In the following Chapter 4, the EMIS is then deeply analysed as a technological tool that allows digital energy management in industrial sites. This investigation has the global scope of organizing any available information on EMIS, to then discuss in Chapter 5 (thanks to the help of Industrial Dynamics tools) how this innovative solution could reach more diffusion and overall become more attractive.
In order to reach the goal of Chapter 4, I provided 3 main tools:
1. EMIS Survey (Chapter 4.3):
The first sub-action aimed at structuring the approach to EMIS by defining the key technical and economical parameters through which each solution is analysable, to then allow the most objective benchmark between different EMIS solutions available on the market.
To do it, I created an excel table where each EMIS company provider (in rows) was analysed through a parametrised scale based on the NRCAN standard. This tool (which can be found in Appendix I) has been completed through a research of each EMIS solution, enriched by one or more interviews with representatives from the companies providing EMIS.
2. EMIS Operational Dossier (Chapter 4.4):
Once provided the ground-based analysis, it seemed pertinent to study which were the most important out of the many parameters present in the Survey. Where is the added value concentrated, in an EMIS? What are the key characteristics that orientate the choice on a given solution instead of another one?
The scope of this sub-section consisted in giving practical sense and value to all the EMIS parameters and characteristics previously analysed in Chapter 4.3.
This led me to interview engineers and business developers operating on the field, to elaborate an operational dossier collecting the important aspects and parameters of an EMIS platform, the key elements that orientate the final customer’s choice.
3. EMIS Use Cases (Chapter 4.5):
The scope behind this action is to provide the ultimate proof of the previously
conducted study: reality. To reach this goal, practical case studies and success
stories are needed. To cope with the impossibility of proceeding with the planned
development of my Thesis’ work (the application of EMIS to at least two clients’
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factories), I participated in closed webinars in which a company provider of EMIS (METRON) presented successful applications of its energy monitoring platform to other potential industrial clients.
Analysing these use cases gave me the opportunity to practically understand the needs of industrial manufacturing companies. In this way, the theoretical study based on the survey and the dossier – along with the interviews – could be translated to concrete, real-life examples on why and how EMIS represent a great solution to manage and reduce the energy consumptions of an industrial production site.
Finally, the use cases’ study enabled the comparison with the precedent analysis, to understand if the identified key EMIS aspects from the previous sections survived to the reality check (Chapter 4.5.3 and Conclusions).
Up until now, a consistent part of the Thesis search (“how to improve the adoption of EMIS as an efficient way to reduce energy consumptions?”) has still not been deeply approached, apart from mentions in the use cases’ chapter (4.5).
This is because the approach has been predominantly technical and concentrated on the operational validity of the EMIS. However, following the practical approach of this Thesis work, I felt the necessity of using a more concrete and broader tool to assess the overall value behind EMIS and its potential.
Therefore, in Chapter 5 I decided to integrate a discussion session – sure, based on the technical and operational knowledge acquired in Chapter 4 – supported (and merged) with an analysis through Industrial Dynamics concepts.
In fact, Industrial dynamics groups a series of assessment tools and evolutionary theories (that will be deeply described and applied in Chapter 5) useful to better understand and manage the development and transformative innovation paths.
Through this study, I was able to assess overall limits and barriers to EMIS development, as well as bottlenecks, friction factors, diffusion schemes and paths, adoption rates.
Thanks to a detailed and profound discussion, where each main tool of industrial dynamics has been firstly generally introduced and then applied to the case study, I was able to formulate – at the end of Chapter 5 – preliminary conclusions that were not limited to the technical sphere, but insisted on the EMIS as an overall innovation.
To conclude the broader analysis, in the last part of the Chapter (5.7), I presented insights on future trends relative to EMIS and a practical example of how a multinational group has been adapting to the innovation.
To conclude, in Chapter 6 I presented the conclusions that I was able to draw, basing on the whole Thesis’ investigation. In this last session, the initial problem (stated in the introduction) has been finally answered.
I then ended my Thesis work by stating what I believe still could be done to answer the questions posed at the beginning of this essay, to leave space for further development.
Disclaimer:
Under normal conditions, my Thesis work should have developed differently.
In fact, as mentioned before, I had already agreed both with my hosting company and my academic tutor on directly analysing at least two internal case studies personally conducted, in other words EMIS solutions for which I would have supervised both the decision-making process and the installation in an industrial client’s site.
18 Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 crisis, there has been a collapse of the industrial production of Vinci Energies’ Business Units and the respective clients.
The delicate situation that factories – as well as anyone else – are now going through, trying to adjust to this unprecedented crisis, did not allow me to end my Thesis study as I previously envisaged to.
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Chapter 3: Context
In the scope of providing the reader with a satisfying overview of the energy-related panorama in the industrial sector, this Chapter presents referenced data on energy consumptions in industry (with future projections).
Additionally, the important concept of energy intensity will be explained in paragraph 3.2, followed by the current main policy instruments addressing digital systems for energy monitoring.
Then, the paragraph 3.3 will describe the current state-of-the-art and prospects of digitalization in industry, a topic clearly very correlated to the EMIS.
This context chapter will be concluded by a detailed overview of current solutions to monitor and manage energy consumptions in the industrial sector, in the optics of providing alternative or complementary solutions addressing this issue.
3.1 Context of the Energy Transition in the Industrial Sector
In 2017, the industry sector accounted for 37% (156 EJ) of total global final energy use (IEA, 2019). As shown in Figure 2, from the year 2010 it has been registered an average 1%
annual growth, with a peak of +1.7% in 2016 (IEA, 2019).
This growth has been largely due to the increasing production of energy intensive sectors like chemicals, metals, cement, pulp & paper.
Figure 2: Industrial Final Energy consumption and fuel shares. Current situation & projection following the IEA Sustainable Development Scenario, 2010-2030 (IEA, 2019).
Figure 3 shows the subsectors’ energy mix, which has remained quite unchanged in the recent years, with “pure” renewables (like solar thermal and geothermal) still stuck at 0.05%, despite a strong growth compared to 2010 levels (IEA, 2019). Minor changes consist in fossil fuels’ contribution – decreased from 73% to 70%, and electricity – increased from 18% to 21%, largely due to an electrification trend in the non-energy-intensive industry (IEA, 2019).
If CO
2emissions are to fall, it is vital to shift away from coal (in particular) towards natural
gas, bioenergy and electricity (IEA, 2019). On the other hand, a major issue related to solar
thermal and geothermal energy is due to their incapacity to supply for high-temperature heat
processes, that represent a large portion of process heat (IEA, 2019).
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Figure 3: Industry direct CO2 emissions (IEA, 2019).
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3.2 Industrial Productivity/Energy Intensity
Industrial (energy) productivity and energy intensity are two specular concepts.
In fact, while industrial productivity consists in the “industrial added-value per unit of energy used”, energy intensity defines the amount of energy necessary to produce a unit industrial product (IEA, 2019).
As it can be observed in Figure 4, since the year 2000 in most regions industrial productivity has increased – this meaning that more was produced with less.
Reasons are to be found in the application of cutting-edge technologies, adjustments in O&M – leading to a more efficient supply chain – and, most of all, a sectorial shift towards less energy-intensive industry and higher added-value sectors (IEA, 2019). That is why the larger improvements have been observed in developed countries – which focus on high added-value products – while developing countries, still in the middle of their industrialization phase, showed little to no progress (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Industrial Energy Productivity by region now, and projected according to the IEA SDS, years 2000-2030 (IEA, 2019).
Industrial energy productivity and energy intensity are parameters to measure energy
efficiency, which is the first goal when it comes to energy consumption in the industrial
sector. In fact, as the security of productivity constitutes the priority in the industrial sector,
companies and factories are reluctant to new technologies that could imply changes in their
production processes (IEA, 2019). That is why energy efficiency is more appealing, as it
allows factories to reduce the energy consumption of the processes and optimize the supply
chain (IEA, 2018). Then, in most cases, once that trust is built basing on follow-ups, major
interventions are performed, and larger savings are obtained (IEA, 2018).
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Figure 5: Decomposition of energy consumption in the industry and service sectors in major economies, 2000-2017.
(IEA, 2018).
In the above shown Figure 5, it is represented the impact on energy consumptions of the structural shift towards less energy intensive sectors and energy efficiency measures, which avoided around 25 EJ, equivalent to 20% of energy use in industry now (IEA, 2018). To give some trends, around 33% of efficiency savings in industry occurred in China while, if we look at the situation in terms of sectors, manufacturing industry accounted for 40% of the total efficiency savings (IEA, 2018).
3.3 Policy coverage
Up to now, mandatory policies regarding industrial energy efficiency cover just 25% of the total industrial final energy, in most cases in the form of minimum performance standards for equipment, such as electric motors (IEA, 2018).
On the other hand, normative standards like ISO 50001 are used as a semi-voluntary tool
to boost energy efficiency. In some countries, companies that satisfy the norm ISO 50001
benefit from a relevant reduction on energy taxes. In Germany’s case, ISO certified factories
pay 80% less the “renewable energy surcharge” tax of 0,068 €/kWh for electricity consumed
(IEA, 2018). Follow-up data show the efficacity of this measure, that enabled a yearly
improvement in energy intensity of 3%, more than double the target (IEA, 2019).
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3.4 The Digitalization’s impact on the energy transition
As the industrial production has been growing in the past years and it is expected to continue to expand – especially in emerging countries – in the future, digitalization is widely accepted as a major trend. Digitalization is largely expected to dominate innovation especially in the industrial sector, where its added value in terms of materials and energy efficiency can only increase (IEA, 2017). On top of that, the combination of several digital tools is bringing more and more far-reaching effects (IEA, 2017).
On the other hand, concerns linked to the fast development of digitalization are the impact on human employment, cybersecurity and privacy.
In Figure 6 it is displayed a series of impacts of digitalization in the industrial sector, where it is distinguished between changes that take place within or outside the site – thus involving the whole supply chain (IEA, 2017).
Figure 6: Application of digital technologies and strategies in industry (IEA, 2017).
If we consider just the site’s perimeter, smart sensors consist in a game-changing solution and have a considerable competitive advantage given their ability to identify and diagnose system inefficiencies and predict equipment failures in O&M, through an extremely precise and automatic monitoring of all the key-parameters of the process (IEA, 2017).
The current trend is to couple smart sensors with an optimization software, to boost either energy or the overall production efficiency of the process (IEA, 2017). The most modern versions of those software use data analytics tools in order to manage and process a large quantity of information in a considerably small amount of time, to deal with complex systems and emergency events (IEA, 2017).
However, digitalization provides benefits far beyond the lone automatization of the industrial processes – even if this represents a necessary starting point in order to make the site
“communicate” with external bodies.
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In fact, through cloud platforms or IoT (Internet of Things) solutions it is feasible to obtain an overall well-connected and interactive line from the producers to the end users, allowing a better management of the supply and value chain that facilitates 2nd life applications, recycling and an overall better efficiency through smoother inter-connections throughout the whole industrial environment (IEA, 2017).
Local waste streams represent a significant example of how digital “beyond the plant’s fence” applications can improve the overall efficiency of the chain: in fact, when the industrial equipment are connected to the surrounding environment, real time information can allow to use the industrial waste to produce energy and improve the overall efficiency of either the industrial site or the quartier nearby (IEA, 2017).
“Within a firm, data analytics that benchmark energy performance across sites can be used to identify bottlenecks and opportunities for cloud-connected workers can benefit from a more dynamic exchange of energy savings, while lessons learned and experience.
Minimizing energy costs reduces a firm’s exposure to price volatility and can provide a
competitive advantage.” (IEA, 2018).
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3.5 Market-Ready Industrial Solutions
In the following paragraph, the different methods to improve energy efficiency in the industrial sector will be presented.
Due to the fact that EMIS (central topic of this Thesis’ work) will be profoundly treated in the upcoming Chapter 4, the focus has been put on the alternative – or complementary – solutions of energy audits and energy efficiency networks.
3.5.1 Energy Audits
As defined in the ISO 50002 standard, “an energy audit is a systematic analysis of energy use and energy consumption within a defined energy audit scope, in order to identify, quantify and report on the opportunities for improved energy performance” (ISO/TC 242, 2014).
Basically, an energy audit is an assessment of a system conducted by a certified expert, with the aim of mapping all the energy usages in search of ways to optimize them and improve the overall energy efficiency of the whole system.
Depending on the scope of the audit – thus the budget dedicated, the level of detail varies.
Three main levels can be distinguished (Santalla, 2020):
• Walk-Through Audit (WTA): it consists in the most superficial and less detailed analysis of the three, being just a visit of the site to check the most obvious issues related to the equipment or O&M. The output of this type of audit is a qualitative analysis with some additional basic comments on which type of interventions would be more feasible.
• Energy Diagnosis: in this case, normally some calculations are performed. This requires taking some energy consumption data, in order to be able to quantify losses and potential gains. The output of this type of audit is constituted by an energy balance (divided in terms of usage) and a list of possible measures ranked with technical-economic means.
• Investment Grade Audit (IGA): a complete and detailed quantitative analysis is performed. The energy consumption is parametrized and standardized with engineering tools in order to obtain an extremely precise estimation of the real energy costs. The output of this type of audit includes an investment analysis and a financial plan on how to perform the most suited interventions, as well as implementation and verification plans to proceed with a follow-up.
Figure 7 shows the energy audit guideline chart suggested by an authoritative entity in the
field, Natural Resources Canada. In the scheme it is possible to distinguish all the steps
necessary to accomplish a precise and structured energy audit.
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Figure 7: The Energy Audit flow chart (Hooke et al., 2004)
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3.5.2 Industrial Energy Efficiency Networks
The Energy Efficiency Networks are an initiative born in Switzerland in the ‘80s with the aim of creating platforms were companies from the same area, sector or even corporate group can share best practices on energy-related topics, to boost the natural improvement of energy efficiency (Schlomann, 2016).
Even if EENs usually work on a voluntary basis and originate from arrangements between private companies, given the overall success of the initiative – which has been reproduced in many Countries – in the past years Governments started to incentivize them with policy frameworks to help their diffusion.
Germany is a clear example of such procedure, with its “Energiewende” program having the goal of 500 new Networks by 2020 (Initiative Energieeffizienz Netzwerke, 2020). Even if this goal will most probably not be attained – the count is today at 263 – the overall initiative produced great results in terms of helping boosting energy efficiency in the industrial ecosystem of the Country (Initiative Energieeffizienz Netzwerke, 2020).
Among their greatest advantages, EEN are first of all extremely flexible and simple. In fact, they can be designed for a wide range of scopes, types of participants, sectors of expertise, supply chain streams etc (Schlomann, 2016). Then, another massive strength consists in the peer-to-peer approach, were industrial players both feel the pressure of their competitors and have the opportunity of exchanging best practices with colleagues of the same industrial sector, that share the same challenges.
Finally, this relationship-based approach creates, over the years, an environment of trust – which is extremely important in the industrial context – that allows for broader exchange and development of partnerships even beyond the EEN context.
As they depend on organizational schemes, financing methods and type, it is quite difficult to define a standard Energy Efficiency Network.
Figure 8 describes the common EEN process, where four phases can be distinguished (OECD/IPEEC, 2017):
Figure 8: The Energy Efficiency Network Process (OECD/IPEEC, 2017).
1) Phase 0: before starting the network, several companies/sites/partners must be
acquired (normally, between 8 to 15).
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2) Phase 1: once launched the network, the participants engage either a technical moderator or an energy consultant that is responsible of an initial study on the initial state-of-the-art of the partners and the potential for further improvement. Normally, this is established through quite detailed energy audits.
3) Phase 3: once that the starting conditions and situations are clear for everyone, the network’s partners agree on (most of the times non-binding) targets – both internal and in relation to the other network members.
4) Phase 4: depending on the targets’ nature, the network’s partners proceed with the
implementation phase, which most of the times consists in a process interspersed
with meetings, moderated exchanges, site visits and whatever tool considered
pertinent to the scope of monitoring the actions taken.
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3.5.3 Energy Management Information Systems
As mentioned in the introduction, hereby stands the definition of EMIS:
“An Energy Management Information System (EMIS) is an important element of a comprehensive energy management program. It provides relevant information to key individuals and departments that enables them to improve energy performance.”
(Hooke et al., 2004).
Depending on several parameters (deliverables expected, features, key elements, typology of support and others), it can be possible to characterize an EMIS and distinguish between different applications that concentrate more in one aspect or another (Hooke et al., 2004).
Some EMIS can perform a more precise and granular analysis of energy data compared to others. Of course, this will come with a higher cost and will thus be addressed only to situations in which this precision level is strictly required.
Normally, the addressed user of an EMIS is constituted by technical personnel in charge of the monitoring of energy use, costs and production data of a factory (Hooke et al., 2004).
A complete description of an EMIS will be provided in the next chapter.
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Chapter 4: The analysed solution - Energy Management Information Systems
As described in the Methodology and resumed several times throughout this Thesis work, this Chapter focuses on a detailed description, analysis and operational study of what constitutes an EMIS.
The following paragraphs will dig into all the possible factors concurring to the final success (or failure) of an EMIS platform, thanks also to practical examples from real-life industrial use cases.
4.1 From a Measurement System to an EMIS
In order to define an EMIS a Measurement System has to be defined, as the ensemble of components that allow the monitoring of the energy consumption in an industrial site (ATEE, 2016). Figure 9 shows the three different blocks that constitute a Measurement System, with examples of sub-components and related tools.
Figure 9: The different components of an EMIS (ATEE, 2016).
Below, a brief description of each – cited – component:
a. Measurement devices.
They are constituted by all sort of sensors and meters able to measure energy-related parameters (ATEE, 2016). Typical examples are electricity, temperature and gas sensors, or flow meters.
When analysing the quality (or taking a decision) on a measurement device, the key indicator is the precision of the measurement, thus the granularity level of sensitivity of the instrument (ATEE, 2016). On top of that, it is important to evaluate the device’s capacity of measuring different energy data per site, zone or energy use.
b. Acquisition tools.
Even if there still exist cases in which data are acquired manually, in the vast majority
of the applications they are collected automatically. Common tools are IoT sensors
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coupled with data networks (radio, Wi-Fi), that concentrate then the data through gateways and hubs (ATEE, 2016). On top of that, SCADA or GTB/GTC systems provide the supervision of the acquired data, along with servers (local or cloud) to store them (ATEE, 2016).
In such applications, evaluation criteria are more complex. The capacity of acquiring data with high and stable frequency represents for sure one of the most important aspects, as the level of automation of the acquisition (and the treatment) of data (ATEE, 2016). Finally, the cybersecurity of the installation is gaining more and more attention, mainly due to the importance of protecting the industrial secret of the production process (ATEE, 2016).
Other minor parameters are represented by the system’s sensitivity to check data redundancy or activate alarms (ATEE, 2016).
c. Analysis tools.
There are basically three types of analysis tools (ATEE, 2016):
a) Tablet-assisted, where a technician conducts a manual analysis.
b) Visualization interfaces (web platforms, GTC).
c) Energy Management Software, which are indispensable if an analysis on energy costs and consumptions is either required or desired.
Common evaluation criteria to all analysis tools are represented by the type and precision level of follow-up actions, reporting and treatment of data (ATEE, 2016).
When it comes to energy-related tools, help decision-making along with energy performance management functionalities are considered key parameters (ATEE, 2016).
When data are collected automatically and evaluated through an energy management
software, the measurement system evolves in an Energy Management Information System
(ATEE, 2016).
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4.2 EMIS’ deployment methodology
A measurement system does not represent a single-shot intervention, but rather it consists in an iterative process where the finality is not only the reduction of energy but the overall cost efficiency of the manoeuvre (Hooke at al., 2004).
On top of that, key advantages of an iterative approach are the opportunity of avoiding over dimensioning (thus overspending) and the flexibility of adapting to a dynamic state-of-the- art – a factory is an always changing system (ADEME, 2016).
Figure 10 represents this iterative process: “Plan-Do-Check-Act” (M. Dowding, 2020).
1) Define the context, the goals and the constraints, to propose an action PLAN.
2) DO implement the measurement system.
3) CHECK Key Performance Indicators, to understand if the system implemented is producing positive results.
4) Re-ACT to the feedback obtained, adjust the system’s functionalities to obtain a better feedback in the next iteration of the process.
Figure 10: The Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle (M. Dowding, 2020).
To conclude the methodology related to the installation of an EMIS, below are briefly described the different steps of installation of a measurement system in an industrial application (ADEME, 2016).
1) Define context and goals:
The motivations and objectives of the project must be clearly defined, to make sure that the organizational, technical and budgetary context will allow the realization of a measurement plan adapted to the ambitions of the project.
2) Evaluate the initial situation:
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Two types of inventory actions are required: functional (what data should be collected and why) and technical (what data are available).
3) Define the Action Plan.
4) Install the EMIS.
5) Analyze the data:
Once that the EMIS gives back data and indications, it is important to proceed with the identification of the KPI and the consequent analysis, to then adjust the action plan. Other than that, it must manage the technical means to operate and monitor the measuring system.
Finally, once that the analysis phase is in a mature stage, a key role is played by the display of the measurements' results, to raise awareness on energy consumption.
6) Maintain the EMIS:
This last phase is the longest one and it consists in many different sub-actions:
• detect malfunctions.
• ensure the continuity of transmission and historization.
• ensure the integrity and accuracy of measurements.
• plan the procedures to put in place in case of failures.
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4.3 EMIS Technical & Operational Characteristics
As mentioned in Chapters 1 and 2, a benchmarking technical and operational survey was created for the occasion to better structure the qualitative analysis and understand the different added values carried by each EMIS solution.
The goal of this operation consisted in distinguishing between the different market available platforms and provide a technical-economic screen to then orientate the choice towards which EMIS was more adapted to each application. To reach this objective, in a dedicated excel table (an extract can be found in Appendix I) each EMIS platform proposed by market companies has been analysed through key quality parameters that englobe technical, operational and policy aspects.
Table 1 represents this tool by generally describing each family of parameters (9) for the purpose addressed and examples of the most important sub-parameters (for each family).
As an example, in the first row the initial information regarding the company provider of the EMIS solution is addressed. As it can be seen in Table 1, this preliminary investigation had the scope of define the overall reliability and experience of the company. It seems logical that in order to assess this, among the other sub-parameters that can be found in Appendix I (like prizes won, number of employees, geographical presence), references and seniority (years) in the market are the most important ones.
Parameters Main Purpose Example
Company information Define the general context of the company and its overall reliability
The seniority in the market and the references are the key aspects to evaluate reliability Mandatory criteria to obtain
(French) subsidies Evaluate if the EMIS solution is eligible for incentives
The production of periodic reports and benchmarking are fundamental to respect the
standards Data Collection
Define how the EMIS integrates with data collectors
The software’s compatibility with hardware pieces (i.e. sensors) and the data acquisition formats
are key to understand the flexibility of the solution Data Verification
Evaluate how the data is checked
To have coherence data control is fundamental, to continuously
check the data flow Data Analysis
Define how the data is processed
The capacity of producing a predictive modelling is the key
characteristic of a valid EMIS Decision-making aid
Evaluate how the EMIS supports the actions of the operators
Decision support tools like smart data analytics or automatic anomaly detection are key to help
the operators in real-time Reporting options
Evaluate the displaying options of the EMIS platform
The intuitiveness of the displaying platform, along with the level of customization, are
central aspects related to reporting
Additional features Gather complementary
information related to various domains
Among many, the possibility of training and a flexible business model tariff where the most
35 appreciated parameters by
installers
Conclusion Summarize important aspects,
add comments from the developers, connect references
The developers’ comments were crucial, as they allowed a better understanding of the strengths of
each solution Table 1: Summary of the EMIS Survey (See Appendix I)
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4.4 Operational Dossier
As mentioned in Chapter 2, if analysing the different EMIS offers on the market was one necessary side of the study, the other one consisted in understanding the key aspects in which the market demand was concentrated.
To do so, given the impossibility of reaching any client or company, I used the internal network provided by my hosting company and I interviewed two main commercial engineers from Business Units in Nancy and Tours, involved in energy efficiency-related actions in the industry.
They also individuated EMIS as a primary solution to address the factories’ energy consumption and productivity. Thus, we discussed about the necessary parameters of a competitive EMIS solution in the industrial sector and the key information that are needed to decide which EMIS to install.
The final goal consisted in developing a compact booklet in which each EMIS solution is compared on the identified key-parameters. By consulting the operational dossier, a professional of the field is supposed to understand the marking elements of each of the analysed EMIS solutions, to then choose in the best convenience of his customers, or the context. The operational dossier is available in the Appendix (Section II), with the sample of the company Energisme.
In the first page, a brief overview of the company producing the EMIS solution is provided, with the key characteristics that let the clients trust the partner (top box) and the industrial references (bottom box).
While the second box was dedicated to a brief technical description of the EMIS solution, the most interesting focus – for operational employees – consisted in the “Strength Points”.
This section was highly requested, since it consists in the operative output from the EMIS survey (presented in the previous paragraph), the interviews to the commercial engineers of the network (mentioned above) and a further discussion with the company providers of EMIS (listed as “reference person”, in Appendix I).
That is why a focus on this section is provided here, with the aim of explaining the industrial clients’ needs – thus what should be the points of improvement in current EMIS solutions.
The eight main operative parameters individuated are here listed:
1) Predictive Modelling
One of the first necessary functionalities required by a client is the software’s capacity to analyse historical data, to then build accurate projections on future energy consumptions. Of course, this is a function that almost any EMIS nowadays available on the market provides, but the level of detail and the “sensitivity” of the software are the real decision-making factor.
2) SCADA and Equipment Adaptability
A particularly convenient aspect of installing an EMIS consists in the possibility of
exploiting the benefits of a pre-existing SCADA, which is a “system of software and
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hardware elements that allows […] to control industrial processes locally or at remote locations” (Inductive Automation, 2018).
SCADAs have been installed in factories in the past decades, with the goal of either increasing the production or to monitor particularly important parameters of the process. Even if, as mentioned, having a SCADA system constitutes in most cases an advantage due to the pre-existing series of sensors and the maturity level of the process’ control and automatization, it is important to check that the two architectures (EMIS and SCADA) are not conflicting.
On the same note, it is important to check the smoothness of the adaptation of the EMIS with either the already existing tools (sensors or smart industrial equipment like modern ovens or dryers) or the common technicians’ requests, when installing a new EMIS – tablets or any other KPIs follow-up device.
3) Operator Guidance
It is important that the EMIS user (the technician or the energy manager) feels at ease with the platform, thus that the combination of the software and the tablets (accessories) results in being as intuitive as possible.
Interviewed engineers from the BU affirmed that they make sure that the company providing the EMIS guarantees a minimum of 1 day of formation with the possibility of updating courses, call service (in case of an urgent problem) and any other option that would allow the EMIS’ user to better and smoother familiarize with the solution.
4) White Labelling
For an installer company, it is indeed important to be able to adapt the EMIS solution to the commercial or marketing needs. Two different types of layouts are normally required: either the EMIS software is rebranded for the installer company or for the client. Depending on the case, one-spot agreements or partnership deals are made.
It is important to check with the company providing the software that both the solution and the business model are adaptable to this type of request.
5) Eligibility to subsidies
The eligibility to subsidies was mentioned in the previous paragraph, as an entire section of the survey was dedicated to that. Since the subsidies have a strong impact in the rentability of the project, it is important for the installer company to be sure that the adopted EMIS satisfies all the standard conditions to obtain the incentives.
6) Schemes Visualization
This consists in the pivotal parameter to identify companies with industrial expertise.
In the case of Energis or MIV, initially born as industrial SCADA providers, their EMIS solution is able to digitally replicate the industrial process of the factory, to distinguish between each equipment that constitutes it. This way, through the synoptic scheme, the control on the process’ efficiency and the factory’s components becomes much easier for the operator, that has the chance to identify faults with granular precision.
7) Data Storage means – Cybersecurity
The cybersecurity aspect is one of the – if not the – most important ones. In fact, in
most cases the industrial secret is the most valuable competitive advantage with
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