1. Electrical power monitoring is foundational. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. The first step in decarbonization and better managing electricity usage is accurately measuring consumption, so you can benchmark energy usage, detect anomalies and reduce power consumption. As infrastructure becomes more electrified with process equipment like hydrogen and electric arc furnaces (EAF) driving electric bills to climb even higher, monitoring electric usage in real-time and over time will be even more important and the potential to impact emissions and costs will be greater. Electrical power monitoring can provide accurate insights on system performance across multiple devices within a facility, making it easy to identify anomalies within the production environment that contribute to inefficient energy use or equipment failure. 

2. The best energy is the energy you don’t use—efficiency is key. Steel production facilities are rich in motor-control driven processes, which provides a massive opportunity to reduce power consumption without sacrificing production. Strategies such as the application of variable frequency drives, LED lighting and power factor correction are still viable.

3. Identify and address poor power quality. Downtime and restarting processes due to power quality issues waste significant energy. Engineering studies, especially for harmonics and transients, can help you identify and evaluate power quality issues and provides you with recommendations to solve problems. 

4. Balance energy needs and emissions with new tools. Cogeneration is not at all new and diesel generators have helped power operations for decades. What’s new is the ability to integrate onsite renewables such as solar combined with the intelligence of a  microgrid controller to balance energy needs. This adds clean energy to the mix, while helping lower your utility bill and increasing the resiliency of your electrical power infrastructure.

5. Enhance operations through digitalization. Digital tools customized for industrial operations can improve your power efficiency and productivity and inform decisions with data and insights. Monitoring the broader production ecosystem is enabling steel producers to identify and correct anomalies, helping to plug energy leaks – from air, water, gas or electrical lines – and reduce energy consumption and emissions.

The power behind the power

Steel is essential to the world’s current transition to more sustainable energy production. Electric vehicles, solar panels, wind farms and utility infrastructure all rely on steel as a foundational building block. And there are new ways to enable more sustainable, efficient production.

For more than 100 years, Eaton solutions have formed the backbone of safe, reliable electricity supply. Today, we can help transform your energy infrastructure to make systems work smarter and harder to power a more sustainable and resilient future.