Energy Consumption Made Visible

“You get that information nearly real time,” Smith says, “not when you get the next bill. Otherwise, it’s 30 days later and you realize, ‘Hey, we used 10% more energy this month, and we ran fewer machines—what happened?’ This way, you can find out in real time when it’s going on and maybe nip it in the bud.”

For Chris Miller, manufacturing engineer at Automation Plastics, a deeper dive into EnerNOC’s readings has become part of his regular routine. “I’ve got it on my calendar on Outlook to go in every Monday, and just kind of review,” Miller says, noting that alerts are sent for anything requiring immediate attention. “I can see if there’s any funny stuff going on or if things seem pretty normal.”

After several years of accessing EnerNOC’s data, Automation has used the insights it offered into its power usage to revamp its machine fleet. In particular, seeing the energy usage of all-electric and hybrid machines vs. hydraulics has created “a huge incentive to replace our equipment and update our facility,” Miller notes. The firm has replaced hydraulic machines with all-electrics and hybrids.

“We’re using less energy, we’re running more production and we’ve got more going on than we did five or six years ago,” Miller says, “and we’re still paying the same amount of money for our electric bill.”

In terms of operations, Miller notes that EnerNOC has made Automation Plastics much more vigilant in its shutdown procedures now that it can see, for instance, the effect of leaving a blower on over the weekend. From a management perspective, it has made energy usage more palpable to the molder.

“One thing EnerNOC does do is make you a lot more analytical about how your plant is running,” Miller says. “You learn what’s going on.”