Industrial Utility Monitoring for Energy Efficiency

Our utility monitoring system empowers the Evonith Steel Group to optimize its resources efficiently.

Energy is the second-largest operating cost in a steel plant, after raw materials such as iron ore or scrap metal, whose prices often fluctuate with global supply and demand. The World Steel Association states that energy accounts for a substantial share of steel production costs, ranging from 20% to 40%.

While energy costs are partly shaped by national policies, they are primarily driven by how much energy the plant consumes. The main energy-consuming processes or equipment in steel plants include coke ovens, blast furnaces, steel making and refining processes, rolling mills, cooling systems, compressed air and high pressure pumps.

Steel manufacturing being an energy-intensive process that involves high levels of electricity, natural gas, compressed air, steam and water usage, need to prioritize strategies to enhance energy efficiency. One way to address this is by implementing real-time monitoring systems of utilities that would enable plant managers to track consumption patterns, identify inefficiencies, and detect anomalies in utility usage.

EUMS: A Utility Monitoring System

Evonith Steel, a leading manufacturer and producer in India, made a strategic decision to monitor and analyze utility generation and consumption at their two facilities — Evonith Value Steel Limited (EVSL) and Evonith Metallics Limited (EML) at Wardha, Maharashtra.

We were assigned by EVSL and EML to develop a web-based data-driven solution.  The system being developed is called Evonith Utility Monitoring System (EUMS) that monitors and tracks electric energy, blast furnace gas, coke oven gas, oxygen, water, steam, and nitrogen at their steel complex.

Figure 1: Blast furnace gas (BFG) network indicating flows and pressures 

Figure 2 &3: Coke oven gas network indicating flows and pressures

The EUMS is deployed on our cloud based remote monitoring and diagnostics platform ALERT which is currently used by Evonith for predictive maintenance. Existing and new gateway computers utilized by ALERT, function as data acquisition points for supporting EUMS. Once the utility data is transmitted to ALERT’s cloud database, it is reconfigured and presented through a clear and accessible synoptic diagram, real-time trends, and historical analyses.

The EUMS dashboard currently gives users a visual representation of the plant’s blast furnace gas network and the coke oven gas network performance as seen in the figures above. The historical data access enables detailed analysis, thus contributing to future resource planning and management.

Benefits

EUMS’ data-driven approach enables better decision-making by offering actionable insights on utility performance across the plant. Continuous utility monitoring can minimize flare-stack loss. The EUMS allows for process adjustments to optimize generation and consumption patterns, thus minimizing waste that lead to significant energy savings and improved overall plant performance.

Effective energy monitoring also supports sustainability and regulatory compliance. With growing pressure to reduce carbon emissions and adhere to environmental standards, monitoring systems such as EUMS can be further modified to provide plants the data necessary for emissions tracking and energy audits.

Ultimately, energy monitoring acts as a foundational tool in driving both economic and environmental goals within the industry.