Manage Your Power Consumption Now to Avoid Cuts Next Summer

Every year during China's hot summer, manufacturers in many cities experience the now infamous power cuts, as local governments struggle to meet their energy targets. And every year during the  summer months, this recurring energy crisis becomes the “hot” topic at chamber of commerce events and in the press. 

Despite this repeating theme, some companies find themselves unprepared for these annual power shortfalls and resort to waiting for the local government or industrial zone management to resolve the issue rather than taking steps themselves to ensure that their firm has enough electricity to operate at full capacity throughout the year. 

Many companies are already implementing energy saving measures that allow them to withstand these frequent power shortfalls, and are able to negotiate with local officials to avoid power cuts, by demonstrating their efforts to reduce energy consumption.

While the hot season is now long gone and winter has come, if your company would like to have a plan in place for avoiding a crisis next summer, then now is the time to take action.

Saving Energy Through Better Management

Energy savings is often confused with “greentech,” however, energy efficiency projects, do not have to involve constructing new, green-certified facilities or purchasing expensive equipment and advanced systems. In fact, seemingly simple operational and maintenance actions can have an enormous impact in terms of energy savings and sustainability (by extending the lifetime of equipment and buildings). 

At one of our customers, automotive part maker Brose Wuhan, a step-by-step preventive maintenance program resulted in a progressive reduction of the site’s electricity bill, with ROI in one year. This preventive maintenance program was implemented without any fancy equipment, without any green label, and relied only on the systematic implementation of of good operation practice.

Another of our clients, SinoFrench Water, had been among the top ten energy users in their industrial zone. Pressed to reduce their consumption, they decided to install meters to analyze consumption over a 6-month period, conducted technical assessments and defined an action plan. No “rocket science” but simple, focused, inexpensive improvements such as changes in automation settings, minor design modifications, management bonuses linked to energy savings. This management-focused plan generated close to 20% energy savings.

Maintenance improvement projects, even those not specifically targeting energy savings, very often generate ROI through a reduction in electricity and water consumption. Systematic analysis of problems over a period of time will often uncover design and installation issues, which when corrected can have a huge impact on operations.

Using Your Systems to Negotiate with Local Governments

One of the important side benefits of having an maintenance and management system designed to save energy is that it can be used to demonstrate a company's good faith efforts to reduce resource consumption with the authorities.

More and more, we see companies that are able to negotiate with local officials to avoid power cuts, by displaying their efforts to reduce energy consumption. Visibly well-maintained equipment, especially for big energy consumers like HVAC and water treatment systems, grab the attention of local authorities, especially if they are compared to perhaps the neighboring factory, whose compressor restarts every 5 minutes due to poor maintenance. Computerized records documenting the results of these conservation measures can make things even more convincing. 

If virtuous companies can avoid power cuts and only bad pupils get punished, we are clearly heading in the right direction. In a time of limited capital expenditures and cost pressure, now is a great time to go for the low-hanging fruits: in a market where maintenance is so under-optimized, simple actions, systematically implemented, sometimes bring huge returns. Finally, take action now, to be ready by next summer!

Bruno Lhopiteau, a 12-year veteran of the Chinese maintenance market, is the General Manager of Siveco China (www.sivecochina.com), the country’s largest maintenance consultancy. He can be reached at bruno.lhopiteau@sivecochina.com.