The Challenge
A manufacturing facility with 34 machines across six production lines paid approximately ₹50 lakhs per month in electricity. The only data available was the monthly bill. No machine-level breakdown existed.
What Became Visible
Sub-metering at individual machine level revealed that three machines — two large grinders and one heat treatment oven — accounted for 38% of total consumption while representing only 18% of production value. The oven was running at full power for 20-hour cycles when actual heat soak required only 4 hours. The grinders were running continuously throughout shifts, including during setup and measurement periods when no cutting was occurring.
What Changed
Real-time power consumption monitoring at machine level with shift-wise breakdown. Energy consumption heatmaps by machine, line, and shift.
How it worked: The oven's temperature profile was corrected — a profile that had been copied from a predecessor machine and never reviewed. Automatic motor shutdowns were implemented on grinders during non-cutting periods. Within 6 weeks, energy consumption had dropped 21% with no reduction in throughput. The monitoring data also made investment cases for two VFD retrofits economically obvious.
Results
38% of consumption
per cycle
~180 kWh/day recovered
₹10.7 lakhs/month saving
Facility-level energy audits find facility-level opportunities. Machine-level visibility reveals the specific machines with outsized consumption — the interventions that matter most. Once machine-level data exists, the audit writes itself.
Operational Reality
Most manufacturing facilities have at least 2–3 machines responsible for 30–50% of total consumption. Identifying them requires data. Optimizing them requires visibility.