Energy management: SAP unveils solution to reduce power consumption
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 8/4/2008 7:13:00 PM
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Enterprise software supplier SAP announces availability of a new solution that enables companies to more effectively measure, report, and consume energy.
The solution—developed through the efforts of SAP’s Value Network for chemicals—combines SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (MII) application with the PI solution from OSIsoft and the Environmental Compliance application developed for SAP by TechniData.
The Value Network for chemicals is one of several clusters of partners and customers SAP formed to work on solutions addressing major problems in specific industries.
According to SAP, the energy management solution enables companies to gather information on the use of energy, in all its forms, throughout the enterprise; identify areas for energy reduction; monitor the implementation of energy excellence projects; and make the results available throughout the enterprise.
“Energy costs have demanded that electricity, gas, and other utilities must be considered as part of the cost of the product,” says Dr. Patrick Kennedy, CEO and founder, OSIsoft. “Our customers are starting to combine real-time and event data from our PI product, and business data from SAP to determine where they stand and then, interactively, how to lower the usage of these resources. In many cases, these projects resulted in significant and sustainable reduction of operating costs. In the current economic climate, customers are finding that the only projects that can affect the bottom line in the near term are those where information drives the savings. We are pleased to collaborate with our partners SAP and TechniData to give our customers an energy management offering for the entire enterprise that will help them achieve substantial reductions in the cost of their products, as well as reduced CO2 emissions.”
In a press release announcing the energy management solution, SAP said it could be used across industries, not just by chemical manufacturers.
“Through the use of its energy and emissions management capabilities, SAP Environmental Compliance allows corporations to monitor and reduce energy use, and identify further opportunities to implement energy conservation projects, resulting in lower operating costs and greater benefits to the environment,” says Jürgen Schwab, chairman and CEO of TechniData.
Business solutions that tap into existing technology to enable improved energy consumption and rapid compliance with regulatory requirements are becoming much more important. Globally, legislation now places requirements on the reduction of emissions. As an example, in California, greenhouse gas emissions are required to be reduced to below-1990 levels by 2010. In New York City, carbon emissions must be reduced by 30 percent by 2030, and the European Union has a common target to reduce emissions by 2010 to 6 percent below the emissions levels of 1990.
The new SAP enterprise energy management solution takes advantage of enterprise service-oriented architecture and the SAP NetWeaver technology platform to integrate the OSIsoft Real-time Performance Management solution with the SAP Environmental Compliance application. The solution is globally available as enhanced functionality in the SAP Environmental Compliance application.
“We are delighted to see this innovative use of the Industry Value Network in addressing our customers’ needs with respect to energy management and the environment,” says Franz Hero, VP, chemistry industry business unit, SAP.
