Ronauld Weeks, Honeywell Connected Industrial, outlines best practices for energy management in today’s connected process industry.
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lmost all process industry facilities have begun to engage in energy management initiatives, yet sometimes the benefits from these initiatives can erode as fast as they are achieved. This is primarily because things change, whether that is in the process, systems, fidelity of rigorous simulation models used, or aged assets. As a result, a degree of maintenance is required to maintain rigorous simulation models. Different methods and technologies are important in decreasing the total cost of ownership and keeping energy management initiatives relevant. So why does energy
performance monitoring, targeting and reporting have a higher propensity to fail in the process industries compared to other industries, such as building management? Experts believe it is typically down to the process industries taking a complex approach to what is essentially a simple but repetitive task. In addition, chemical and petroleum engineers tend to take a rigorous simulation and precisely theoretical approach to solving these problems. These approaches were necessary when the world was not connected by sensors, and the need for data via simulated values, in the absence of real-time data, was necessary to supplement this knowledge gap. However, times have HYDROCARBON 61
ENGINEERING
June 2021
