Cloud-based monitoring tools are starting to become commonplace for the Hydrocarbon Industry. They are beginning to reap the rewards of adopting such technology that allows experts to remotely support plants with insight, supplementing the plant’s own capabilities and resources to ensure to it consistently reaches its full potential. This new wave of digitalization has brought in new business models, which are now based on delivering outcomes, over products and labor by the hour. However, the focus has now shifted to energy and carbon management.
The Hydrocarbon Industry is faced with increased pressure on their energy efficiency. Some of the main issues include: energy costs adversely impacting their plants competitiveness; carbon taxation or reduction mandates threatening their plant’s license to operate or investor or community perceptions of the business; short-handed technical workforces being unable to maintain energy management software tools and implement their outputs; and process performance and energy performance needing to be managed holistically. So how does the industry overcome these problems and allow energy performance to excel and provide opportunities, rather than it being a compliance burden?
The industry needs to adopt a solution, such as our very own energy and sustainability Co-Pilot Program®, that will empower plants to continuously manage their energy and carbon emissions, ensuring that energy performance remains high. By embracing the latest technology on offer, the industry will be able to establish a real-time data connection to the plant and access real-time energy supply-side optimization. They will also have site-wide energy and carbon monitoring and management, as well as demand-side energy minimization by using simulation and analytics services to ensure the optimum trade-off between yield and energy.
All of this is supported by KBC energy experts and the service can also be used by third-party equipment suppliers, catalyst vendors and consultants, who often have access to additional powerful analytical and simulation tools, which help analyze and resolve site problems remotely.
There are also huge economic benefits of adopting a cloud-based solution. By embracing our own Co-Pilot Program, refiners will see a 10 per cent reduction in energy costs and carbon emissions, leading to significant returns of between five and 10 times that of the investment driven primarily by lowering operating costs.
Sustainability is key in today’s climate and embracing cloud technologies will prove vital in safeguarding operations and remaining profitable. With energy efficiency high on the agenda, the industry needs a trusted solution they can rely on to ensure ROI.