"We can try!" - The philosophy that year after year helps BTT Plåt make big energy savings
With the help of DAZOQ, BTT Plåt has reduced its energy use by more than 26%. Here we take a deep dive into how they work with energy efficiency to reduce consumption, lower costs and strengthen sustainability.
CHALLENGES & GOALS
BTT Plåt is one of DAZOQ's first customers and has used DAZOQ Energy Intelligence (EI) since 2021. Even then they made savings that amounted to 19% compared to previous years, but when the site manager who worked most actively in DAZOQ EI started a new job the energy efficiency work stopped.
When the new site manager, Johan Cederborg, had landed in his new role, BTT Plåt could start the energy efficiency work again. During the energy consultation, he saw the savings potential and understood: This must be a priority! In time for the next follow-up, they had managed to hire the production technician Tatsiana Dzianisava, who is now the person responsible for energy management and works mostly in DAZOQ EI. She was given an introduction to the system and a review of the savings potential, and it didn't take long to see changes in how the machines were used.
Tatsiana usually logs in at least once a week, but usually on Mondays and Fridays to follow up on what happened last week and identify new measures.
ACTIONS
'It was quite easy to identify the standby. If you just open the portal and go into the respective process, you clearly see "Ok, here we don't turn off the machine for some reason!", so a large part of the savings potential we achieve simply by turning off the machines when they are not in use.'
In the beginning, she mostly worked in the energy view, where she sees the machines' energy use and power output in real time and can then easily identify when the machines are in standby, energy saving mode, production or switched off (see picture below).
But then she started using the function for machine status, where she can even more easily obtain exact numbers and summaries of how much the machines were in, e.g. standby. 'It makes the work easier and saves time! ’
'We are working hard to cut all standby in the paint shop, where we identified savings potential of around 45,000 kWh/year. At first the operators said that nothing can be done about it, and that it cannot be turned off. 'It was programmed that way when they installed all the equipment. That's how it's always been...' But then I said: "We can try! If it doesn't work, then we change it back.” And then they tested, and it seemed to work without problems.' - she says happily when we look at the picture below.
'Exciting that the painting was started there on Friday without it appearing to be used. It can be programmed to start automatically, whether it is needed or not. So we have a holiday and not enough staff to run it every day, maybe it will waste energy in standby for a whole day. But it's unnecessary, so we'll look into that!'
Much of her work with energy efficiency consists of following up, reminding the staff (“Don't forget to turn off the machines!”) and to ensure that the new good habits are maintained.
'We had reduced the standby time in the painting to only around 9,000 kWh/year compared to 45,000 kWh before. But after the holidays I noticed that settings changed back for some reason, maybe because it was off for so long. I spoke to the supervisor about trying to think about it as much as he could and it looks like he succeeded.'
Even in the laser, she identified a lot of weekend standby, amounting to around 64,000 kWh a year. There, changes are visible thanks to her persistence in cutting standby and shutting down machines when they are not producing.
'The first weekend in September, the consumption of both laser cutters was down to 110 kWh, not even a tenth of how much it used to draw. If we manage to maintain what we did that weekend, we can save almost 60,000 kWh a year just from that!'
INSIGHTS & RESULTS
'An important piece of the puzzle and the biggest challenge in the energy efficiency work is to make everyone feel responsible and involved, and work together to improve energy efficiency all the time. If it concerns your house, many people are interested in improving energy efficiency, but when it comes to the company, many people are not as interested and do not care. So it is important to make everyone understand that it affects everyone. It is even our profit and it can affect how much bonus we can get at some point in the future.'
Her determination and persistence in following up and pointing out when machines were forgotten on standby means she sees a change: 'It feels better now, they have started to ask themselves sometimes how things are going.'
'We are still in the early stages of energy efficiency, so I don't have exact figures on what we have saved, but the trend is clearly positive in any case.'
'There is still a lot we don't know. We have a measuring point that sits on an entire rail. There we see a large standby consumption, but we do not know where exactly it comes from. Therefore, we have now added additional measurement points so that we can get to the bottom of this. So now there will be more focus on welding and bending where we installed the new measuring points.'
'A positive side effect of this was that we saw that the robotic press has a much lower power output than the manual presses, so we will see if it is more energy efficient to move jobs to the robot to save on the difference.'
At BTT Plåt, the work with DAZOQ EI shows how continuity, commitment and a solution-oriented approach can lead to significant results in energy efficiency. By regularly following up, testing new measures and being persistent, the team has been able to identify and eliminate unnecessary energy consumption, such as standby modes and incorrect settings. The positive outcome, both in numbers and in changed habits, shows that energy optimization is a process that requires both technology and an awareness of all employees.
Although they have come a long way, there is still a lot of potential left to explore, which they are now doing with new measurement points and a continued focus on optimization. This customer case shows that with the right mindset - "We can test!" - is it possible to find solutions that many thought were impossible, and that small steps can lead to large, long-term savings. BTT Plåt has only begun its journey and with DAZOQ EI as a tool, the future looks bright for even greater savings and increased sustainability.
DAZOQ helps companies increase their energy efficiency and through real-time machine-level energy monitoring. Through effective communication of savings potential, we can together contribute to a more cost-effective, resource-efficient and energy-efficient future. Contact us and we'll gladly tell you more.