All facilities lose energy dollars through overheated electrical distribution systems and overloaded and misaligned rotating assets, as well as lose expensive compressed air and steam through leaking pipes/fittings. Couple this with the increasing pressures of global competition, a thinning workforce and budget constraints and you have significant issues/opportunities. A remedy is to improve equipment reliability by fully leveraging predictive preventive maintenance program(PdM) technologies.
This focuses on how the successful integration of standard predictive preventive maintenance program(PdM)technologies a long with centralized reporting can capture significant energy savings and simplify ROI calculations. By the way, any associated benefits of increased safety, reliability and enhanced facility capacity is purely coincidental.
How will you get creative to save money and add back to the bottom line or protect whatever reliability team is still standing? This is difficult since many facility maintenance departments are caretakers of older equipment and systems which were not designed for energy conservation.
Where are you going to find some money? -
The good news is that in most cases, the energy savings can be found within your existing processes. Your organization has the knowledge to address the issues but may lack the information to pinpoint the cause and implement timely and cost-effective repairs.
The great news is that you have a centralized enterprise asset management (EAM) system that will help mine and trend information that can identify systems with the highest probability of providing energy savings. You were told the information is there, so it time to start making this predictive preventive maintenance program(PDM) technologies pay off.
A quick search of the EAM platform shows that infrared thermography of your electrical systems has identified 793 temperature anomalies totaling 44,300 degrees Fahrenheit over OEM heat curves and a potential savings in the next year of $94,353.
Sum of Energy
Saved
Cause
Excessive
Temp. F
Component
Poor
Connection
Internal
Flaw
Overload
5 More…
Grand
Total
Breaker
$ 18,252
$ 1,598
$ 19
$ 327
$ 20,196
18%
7,361
Connector
$ 16,932
$ 455
$ 0
$ -
$ 17,387
15%
4,073
Fuse
$ 3,096
$ 5,483
$ 756
$ -
$ 9,335
8%
1,205
Connection
$ 8,645
$ 0
$ 0
$ 183
$ 8,828
8%
3,022
Blade Port
$ 7,001
$ 1,174
$ 0
$ -
$ 8,175
7%
2,499
Other
$ 6,298
$ 488
$ 287
$ 529
$ 7,602
7%
3,346
Contactor
$ 7,382
$ 0
$ 0
$ -
$ 7,382
6%
1,418
Breaker (3P) Bolt On
$ 4,386
$ 1,029
$ 18
$ -
$ 5,433
5%
1,954
Breaker (1P) Bolt On
$ 4,100
$ 966
$ 0
$ -
$ 5,096
4%
2,190
Fuse Clip
$ 4,244
$ 0
$ 0
$ -
$ 4,244
4%
1,458
23 more…
$ 14,017
$ 0
$ 0
$2,806
$ 16,823
15%
5,954
Grand Total
$ 94,353
$ 14,309
$ 1,807
$383
$114,314
44,223 F
Now that you have the information, applying your knowledge is easy and determines the direction and proactive strategies. Using a rule of thumb that 70 percent of electrical thermal issues are caused by loose connections, cross-referenced with your top 10 components (blue highlights), the list starts to become a little more manageable with 521 items worth $80,000 in savings (blue highlights).
Your plan of action is twofold. Issue work orders to critical systems with connection issues or the highest paybacks and establish a connecting torque program during the annual infrared inspections. Successfully eliminating these poor/loose connections items eliminates 30,000 degrees F in excessive temperatures (bright yellow highlights) and the associated fire and safety risks.
If you are lucky, you could pick up more savings by using the EAM platform to cross-tie the next bad actor cause category of internal flaws with components already being addressed or near these systems. You are confident since this energy-saving opportunity doesn’t include motor systems, compressed air, steam, etc.
Realities of Knowledge and Information Gaps -
Most organizations are in some mode of not having perfect information, trying to add a technology and/or trying to build a critical mass of data that can be mined for asset/financial information which will get them a voice for more funding and support for reliability programs. If any of these fit your situation, the following steps and calculations can help guide you through typical facility systems, predictive preventive maintenance program(PdM)technologies that can identify issues and basic energy-saving calculations.
Opportunity #1: Electrical Distribution - Electricity and electrical distribution systems are the backbone of how we live and what drives most of our nation’s commercial progress. The issue at hand is that much of the nation’s electrical generation and distribution systems are more than 40 years old. Many have surpassed their designed life and are more susceptible with safety and supply variables. These power issues, such as the following, are often hidden and problematic to equipment:
Unstable utility supply / line surges - Lightning strikes / transient voltage
Unbalanced and overloaded transformer bank - Short circuits
Unidentified single-phase ground faults - Faulty power factor correction equipment
Expertise and staffing shortages
These variables are often hidden but can manifest themselves as single-phasing, shorted windings, overheated transformer banks and partially tripped-over current protection.
The Risk and Insurance Perspective- Zurich Insurance Risk Engineering reports identify that 30 percent of all large fire losses are caused by electrical failures (includes all cases and unknown).
Now that we have an inventory road map, we can take a tour of all transformers, switch gear, disconnects, distribution panels and contactors, relays, breakers, etc. Infrared thermography captures thermal anomalies and variances in temperatures. It is ideal for capturing high-resistance, overloaded, phase imbalance and loose electrical connections that cause overheating and waste energy. Scan while equipment is under load and hit critical transformers/connections during high-temperature periods.
During your infrared survey, a 480-volt, three-phase breaker is found to be operating at a temperature of 171 degrees F. The measured ambient temperature is 73 degrees F. The breaker is rated at 100 amps, but the actual load is measured at 38 amps. The anomaly is determined to be a loose connection and requires cleaning and tightening to be returned to a precise state.
Numerous ways exist to calculate the cause/effects of the higher temperatures and energy being wasted (i.e. heat curves, amp draw differences and voltage drop). The following example uses the amp draw difference between pre- and post-repair amp readings. In this case, the amps before were 38 and amps after the successful repair were 35.5, with a resulting difference of 2.5 amps.
Potential annual savings by repairing the loose connection: kW = (480 volts x 2.5 x .87 x 1.732) / 1,000 = 10.84 = 8,760 x 11.21 x $0.08 = $7,603.15
Closing the Deal -
These examples are only scratching the surface as there are many more energy-saving opportunities with additional predictive preventive maintenance program (PdM) technologies such as vibration monitoring/alignment strategies, motor circuit and motor current analysis, lube oil analysis/optimization, and aerial infrared surveys for roof moisture saturation.
As mentioned earlier, most organizations have the knowledge but lack the information to make the right decisions in a timely manner. Once you have solid results, your goal is to provide simple communications that gain support for your reliability and energy-saving efforts.
References
1. In preparation for this article, the author collected data from Predictive Service’s Viewpoint database of data collected during reliability field services with a specific search on electrical infrared inspections. This data spanned a cross section of seven industry segments and the following summaries:
Industry
Average years of Date
2.29
1
Hospitality
Sites
2,745
2
Property Mgmt
Covered Assets
183,301
3
Foods
Thermal Anomalies
14,275
4
Retail
Cumulative Temperature Rise
770,524.45 F
5
Textiles
Average Temperate Rise per Anomaly
59.04 F
6
Pharmaceuticals
Energy Savings
$ 9,507,834
7
Aggregate
Average Energy Savings per Anomaly
$ 462.74
Note: facilities averaged shifts of six days per week and 16 hours per day. Electrical average across sites is $0.07 per kWh.
2. For the purposes of this document, most of the energy savings are calculated using electricity as the base (other than steam generation which includes natural gas, water treatment, etc.). Additionally, the approach is in general terms. Numerous additional factors can impact or fine-tune each calculation.
3. U.S. Industrial Motor Systems Market Opportunities Assessment, Xenergy for Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy, 1998.
4. Energy Use, Loss and Opportunities Analysis, Energetics, Inc and E3M, Inc for the U.S. Department of Energy, November 2004.
5. Motor Planning Kit 2.1: Strategies, Tools and Resources for Developing a Comprehensive Motor Management Plan. Consortium for Energy Efficiency, Inc.
6. Boosting your Bottom Line: Plug into Programs. Lubrication Management & Technology page 6. March / April 2008.
This is just part of the article that looks into the electrical end of the spectrum to save money. If interested in how to save in other areas for your facility email me at irtech@bresnan.net
