11/09/2021 | News release | Distributed by Public on 11/09/2021 06:32
Although increased energy consumption has helped foster economic development and higher living standards, achieving this progress has come at a steep environmental cost. Emissions-driven global warming has altered weather patterns and heightened concerns surrounding rising sea levels, destructive storms, and disruption to crop yields. As a result, industries across the globe are under intense pressure to reduce their carbon footprint, and sustainable Mining, Minerals, and Metals operations have become a focal point for both government regulators and consumers.
However, the Mining, Minerals, and Metals firms find themselves in a challenging situation. Their operations are, by their very nature, energy-intensive. Luckily, the recent wave of Industry 4.0-related trends have presented stakeholders with the means for lowering CO2 emissions by powering their infrastructure with greener energy and by migrating to greener operations.
Regulatory pressures, marketplace perceptions, and a desire to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have prompted Mining, Minerals, and Metals industry operators to more actively pursuing opportunities that reduce energy consumption and help them become more sustainable industries. Companies like Schneider Electric support these efforts by developing and implementing innovative energy management infrastructure technologies. Also, new off-balance-sheet financing mechanisms are helping to remove the obstacle of high up-front capital investments sometimes associated with energy efficiency initiatives. Such approaches enable companies to use the energy savings derived from the new technologies to pay for the investment over time, using the OpEx savings to fund the capital expense.
Below are four ways digital technologies can help Mining, Minerals, and Metals industry stakeholders evolve to lower-emissions operations:
One example of such a solution is the recent partnership between Schneider Electric and Wärtsiliä to create a sustainable uninterrupted power solution for the most remote lithium mines in the world. The holistic fit-for-purpose power system includes tailored power supply consulting and design, power infrastructure build, equipment delivery, installation, digital microgrids operation, and commissioning available to mining operators worldwide. The joint solution optimizes the efficient delivery and use of energy. It unifies and leverages microgrids, thermal power generation, energy storage, and other renewable energy sources to provide a highly cost-effective power solution with a minimal environmental footprint for the mining industry in those remote areas with difficult access to energy, delivering an average 27% CapEx saving and 20% CO2 reduction.
As energy consumption is reduced via digitization tools that enhance electrical systems efficiency, a broader scope of digital-driven production efficiency tools can help further supplement CO2 emission reduction efforts through enhanced operations. Digital architectures are now in places that allow Mining, Minerals, and Metals industries to more easily integrate information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) across multiple systems and sites. These digital architectures, such as EcoStruxure Plant Advisor, have been put into place to deliver real-time insights across information silos and are focused on monitoring the critical KPIs needed for business optimization, allowing optimizing resources usage such as energy Core production and business risks can be controlled in real-time via cloud, edge, and on-premise solutions. Operators can view cloud-connected critical data anytime, anywhere from any device. Resiliency and visibility are improved through live sensor data, predictive analytics, and smart alarming. Operators also have access to experts who monitor connected assets 24/7.
Other approaches such as integrated operations management help to more easily capture and analyze energy data across the various stages of the value chain and optimize the usage by reducing waste such as unnecessary processing stops and starts and coordination between processes. As a result, sustainability reporting becomes significantly more precise. This data enables the generation of an energy consumption baseline, balancing energy distribution within the plant, documentation of energy performance data, comparison of facilities to each other, and analysis of how energy-saving initiatives and investments drive positive sustainability impact.
To learn more about how Mining, Minerals, and Metals companies can accelerate their carbon emissions reductions, download the new Schneider Electric e-guide "Five innovative approaches to resource sustainability."