Process Control

Adopting best practice methods in process measurement and control can deliver energy savings of 2- 6% on a typical UK industrial site. A large process site, however, could realise energy savings of up to 15%, depending on the quality of existing control systems and the nature of the process.

A well-designed and maintained control system will provide many benefits. These could include:

• Energy savings. Poor control is a major cause of excessive energy consumption
• Safety improvement. Control systems maintain safe conditions and have built-in alarms to warn of any problems
• Consistent product quality. A well-tuned control systems can reduce variation in product quality and, as a result, reduce product waste
• Reduced manufacturing costs. A good control systems can diagnose faults at an early stage in a process to ensure that product throughput and yield is optimised

Many projects to improve process control have a payback period of under 12 months – and they can often be completed without a plant shutdown.

Please click on the links below to find out how better process control can help you save energy:

This section describes how a process control system works

This section describes the different types of control systems

It is important to ensure control systems are running at their optimum level

A poorly maintained process control system will consume significantly more energy than it should

There are many ways of controlling a process, from simple sensors to advanced control systems

Links to associated websites and details of key publications.