A measure of control: about sensors, measurement and control equipment in German companies

Taking stock of energy flows is central for energy management activities within companies: It is needed to identify the most appropriate energy efficiency measures, to implement them and to monitor their impact. While the use of sensors, monitoring and control equipment helps to enhance transparency, few studies seem to provide empirical data about the use of these technologies and about the expectations for achievable energy savings across a larger sample of companies. Against this background, this paper aims to broaden the understanding of the use of measurement infrastructure and control technologies for enhancing energy efficiency within industrial companies based on a sample of German companies. The insights in this paper use survey results obtained from companies participating in a national funding programme for sensors, measurement and control equipment. The analysis covers, among others, the expected savings associated with measurement infrastructure and control technology, how companies monitor energy flows and how they make use of this information. While the selection of companies is not representative and limitations apply, the results seem to underline that there are various ways how energy-related measurement infrastructure and control technologies are used and implemented in practice. Among others, the companies in the sample seem to monitor electricity more often than thermal or other properties, they have largely left the pen-and-paper era for data acquisition and data is kept in in-house storage systems. The assessment of data appears still seems to include a substantial amount of handiwork and AI based automation was still rare at the time of conducting the survey. In general, expected triggered savings vary but tend to be in a range of 2 to 5 % of the covered energy demand.