Watch sporting events or other cable TV shows, and IBM will bombard you with commercials touting their smart grids and green planet solutions. No problem here – we absolutely need a smarter, greener planet. And, integral to our green energy future, is the important aspect of power companies implementing smart grids and meters. There does seem to be an issue, however, in that energy management should not end at the incoming service panel or substation. Surely most plant engineers know how much power they are consuming, and what their power factor penalty is, but what about waste within each operation at the plant floor level?
What strikes me is the lack of interest in energy management solutions. Do you believe that most plant systems, especially pumps, air compressors and lighting are optimized to run when demand is present? Agent based software can sense conditions and logically react to save huge amounts of energy. Are you seeing smart systems making their way to the plant floor?
Smart Everything
Watch sporting events or other cable TV shows, and IBM will bombard you with commercials touting their smart grids and green planet solutions. No problem here – we absolutely need a smarter, greener planet. And, integral to our green energy future, is the important aspect of power companies implementing smart grids and meters. There does seem to be an issue, however, in that energy management should not end at the incoming service panel or substation. Surely most plant engineers know how much power they are consuming, and what their power factor penalty is, but what about waste within each operation at the plant floor level?
What strikes me is the lack of interest in energy management solutions. Do you believe that most plant systems, especially pumps, air compressors and lighting are optimized to run when demand is present? Agent based software can sense conditions and logically react to save huge amounts of energy. Are you seeing smart systems making their way to the plant floor?