4 May 2022

Cherry Energy Solutions

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How to reduce electricity consumption in industry.

Today’s rising and volatile energy costs are a key concern for Australian businesses. While all industries must contend with this, manufacturing is one of the most energy intensive.

It’s therefore increasingly necessary for businesses in this industry to take measures to reduce their energy consumption.

This can be a great opportunity to refine plant processes and systems for improved efficiency and effectiveness.

1. Understand Your Consumption Patterns

Reducing your energy consumption requires an understanding of where, when and how your site uses power. This can be done via a commercial energy monitor, a system integrated with your operations and appliances to track consumption patterns in real time.

Our commercial energy monitoring system, Cherry Pulse, is designed to meet this need. Its user-friendly graphical interface assists in identifying where energy is being wasted through inefficient appliances, systems or behaviours, and enables you to track and forecast your energy spend.

2. Eliminate Energy Wastage

Assessing your site for energy wastage is likely to reveal measures that can be immediately implemented by your team to reduce energy consumption.

Waste may include things like machinery not being fully shut down outside of operating hours, lights being left on or cool rooms opened unnecessarily. In many cases, addressing these habits can significantly cut power costs.

In addition, you may be paying more for your energy than you need to be. Many energy providers charge a higher rate during peak times. It’s worth looking into whether any of your plant’s machinery can be automated to operate at night. If so, this may be a cost-effective approach.

3. Implement Efficient Lighting

Upgrading your plant’s lighting system is worth considering if you haven’t yet made the switch to LED.

Industrial lighting is essential to plant operations but older style systems can be power-hungry, so improving the efficiency of your fixtures means serious savings on your energy spend.

Switching from traditional industrial lights (such as halogen) to LEDs can reduce your energy consumption from lighting by up to 84%.

Other benefits of LED lighting include improved lighting quality and longevity, with bulbs lasting up to 10 times longer than their traditional counterparts.

LED tube lights, highbays, downlights and floodlights are all easily accessed through suppliers such as Cherry Energy, who can advise on the best industrial LED lighting solution for your plant.

4. Switch to Renewable Energy

Aside from reducing energy consumption, reducing your need to buy energy from the grid is a powerful way to cut your industrial energy spend. Industrial solar systems are a highly effective way of achieving this, offering immediate and often dramatic cuts to power costs.

Energy saving measures like those mentioned above support a rapid return on investment by further reducing grid reliance.

This can be seen in our work with steel distributor and processor Vulcan Steel at their site in Dandenong, Victoria, where we installed a 99.36kW solar system and upgraded 300 lights to LED. In combination, these systems have created a saving of $48,000 per annum for Vulcan.

Want to find out how much your business could be saving by installing industrial solar panels? Use our simple solar calculator tool to start exploring your rooftop’s possibilities.

5. Make it a Team Effort

Whatever efforts you’re making to reduce your commercial energy consumption, it pays to involve your team in the process.

By providing education about new systems and processes, you’ll support your team to be proactive in getting on board.

This can take the form of workshops, surveys and discussions that bring to light energy use behaviours and habits across the whole company.

From there, you can develop plans and targets that address problem areas effectively.

6. We Can Help

Cherry Energy creates solutions to reduce energy consumption for industries at all scales. To discuss your needs and find out what we can do for your business, get in touch with us today.