White paper, video describe plans for energy cost reduction

The Global Consulting group of Invensys Process Systems (IPS) is providing new information on best practices for real-time energy management. These principles are based on the field experience of IPS consultants and cover strategic, activity-based management solutions that reduce costs and improve efficiency in energy-intensive operations. Real-time monitoring of steam plant performance, improving power plant performance and automating thermal reforming operations are among the many areas in which IPS consultants have helped clients achieve measurable results by applying real-time energy management solutions.

The information is being made available through a new video and white paper accessible online at http://www.ips-answers.com/energy. In the video, titled “Energy Management & the Real-Time Enterprise,” IPS vice president Dr. Peter Martin describes the essential components of the real-time enterprise and how they can help process manufacturers achieve dramatic reductions in energy costs and consumption. In the white paper, titled “Real-time Energy Measurement and Empowerment,” IPS principal consultant Russ Barr describes activity-based costing, activity-based management and real-time measurement and communications practices that have resulted in significant customer savings and have received wide industry acclaim.

“Energy is among the largest variable costs manufacturers must control to remain profitable,” said Nathalie Marcotte, vice president, IPS Global Consulting. “Fortunately, energy is also a cost that manufacturers can manage effectively through expert application of automated controls and real-time monitoring. Our consultants bring years of expertise in implementing real-time automation that lowers energy and material costs, while maximizing production value. The video and white paper we are releasing today are part of an ongoing program through which we will share valuable domain knowledge with process manufacturers.”

In the video, Dr. Martin discusses energy management in the context of five areas that process manufacturers can monitor and control in real-time to maximize profit: production value, raw material costs, energy costs, plant safety and environmental compliance. He also describes the following critical components that enable the real-time enterprise:

·        A measurement infrastructure, which defines energy operations in terms of their role in achieving the company’s business strategy

·        An empowerment infrastructure, which delivers real-time operational data in operator, managerial and executive dashboards

·        A control system that enables management of business and production operations, together in real-time

·        An optimization strategy, which identifies areas of improvement and ways to achieve them through advanced process control, asset management techniques, training or other strategies.

A preview of the video is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uHPIHUz9CQ. To view the complete video, visit http://www.ips-answers.com/energy.

The white paper focuses on the first two components of the real-time enterprise: measurement and empowerment. It describes the process by which companies can create the strategic measurements, key performance indicators (KPIs), performance dashboards and other measurement and empowerment solutions, which can be integrated with activity-based costing and management systems to help them achieve and sustain profitability. To download the white paper, go to http://www.ips-answers.com/energy.

The video and the white paper are part of a series of materials that IPS will be offering to help process manufacturers realize the goals of the real-time enterprise. Visitors who request materials at http://www.ips-answers.com/energy will also have the opportunity to communicate directly with IPS authors and other IPS experts and to subscribe to the complete “Real-time Enterprise Series.”

About IPS (Invensys Process Systems)

Invensys Process Systems (IPS), headquartered in Plano, Texas, is a global technology, software and consulting firm leading significant change in process manufacturing, plant optimization, business operations and enterprise performance. IPS clients are some of the world’s most important industrial organizations — companies that operate large oil refineries; plants that process chemicals, gas, LNG, power, pharmaceutical and minerals; and pulp and paper mills. IPS solutions, used at over 50,000 locations across the globe, include field devices and controls from Foxboro and Triconex, advanced applications from SimSci-Esscor, operations management from Avantis, and the world’s first truly open enterprise control system, InFusion.  

The company’s approximately 7,500 employees integrate these capabilities to create solutions that impact and increase efficiency, boost productivity, and accelerate performance. These results help industrial companies run safer, operate more efficiently, and extract useful knowledge from their operations to make faster, better decisions.