Electrical power consumption constitutes a major overhead cost. Many businesses that consume power in quantities are finding that their biggest power cost occurs during peak power usage periods when power companies charge a higher tariff for power. The bottom line is to reduce power usage if possible. For rationalization for funds to upgrade infrastructure, they are usually tied to a rapid return on investment (ROI) and deemed to be low risk thus favored by management. Power monitoring and power management are in high demand, especially as the cost of power production increases. Because of environmental concerns coal fired power generation is being phased out for gas fired generation. Overhead and infrastructure are a much of a concern for power generation companies as are they are for major consumers. All that generation, fuel and infrastructure maintenance cost are past on to the consumer with a percentage that constitutes a profit. Power prices thus are going to increase and never ever go down. It’s the nature of the beast. Some manufacturing and assembly plants are even finding it economical enough to invest in parallel power generation equipment to run during the high use periods to offset the high demand period charges.

Monitor Power Usage

Where to start. You can only identify problem areas by monitoring the power usage. Energy consumers have broad considerations and concerns where energy consumption is involved. There is a diversity that separates load types, requirements, energy consumption schedules and the toleration level of the area for less than ideal power delivery. There are four basic types of consumers:
– Industrial includes manufacturing and assembly. AC, sheet metal and field services like HVAC, plumbers and electricians.
– Commercial varies from retailers, entertainment including casinos, hospitality services and businesses like attorneys, CPAs and others. Many office operations are connected to all these categories and electronics, including computers are a large component of energy eaters in any business. For all businesses lighting will constitute one base of power consumption, though with the predominance of LED lighting those costs and loads will diminish. The commonality is office operations. The computers, printers and communications system constitute a major power consumer for any operation.
– Governmental has all the components that constitute those of the commercial with office operations predominating.
– Residential the big power consumers are HVAC, water heaters and electronics. Vampire power consumption is of interest to the residential energy consumers. The remote circuits of TV, video and sound systems can burn up to a third of the power it costs to run them. They are on 24/7 and can expend a lot of power over time.

Advantages of Power Monitoring Systems

Power monitoring can identify power usage throughout a facility. It can find problems that were not apparent in the wiring and circuit loads. It is common for substandard wiring and supporting components and installations to be found during a monitoring and analysis period. Though power monitoring of residential power consumption is increasing it is the heavy consumers like manufacturing, industrial or commercial users that benefit the most. There are industries like pharmaceutical or semiconductor fabrication that have a low tolerance for electrical perturbations that affect the quality and consistency of their products. Dirty power cannot be tolerated in these operations. Monitoring can determine any under performing circuits in these critical processes.

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Power monitoring is the only solution to discover what is going on and where.
Advanced Electrical Solutions Corp