Automation Vendor Opto22 ( www.opto22.com) and eSight Energy ( www.eSightenergy.com), maker of energy management software, have agreed on a strategic partnership to integrate their respective offerings to provide an energy management solution for industrial manufacturers and building automation. Opto 22 and eSight Energy showcased this newly formed partnership at the recent eSight Energy Annual Summit, held in Chicago on Aug. 24.

With the new partnership, Opto 22's OptoEMU sensor platform integrates with eSight Energy's software and provides energy consumption data via a PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone. This solution allows real-time energy data, from pumps, valves and motors, for example, to be shared with facility managers, corporate management and other plants within the enterprise. eSight's platform offers a full management suite in the form of Software as a Service (SaaS), a locally-hosted option or a hosting agreement with eSight Energy.

Visibility

"By combining our expertise and enabling our technology to work with that of several different energy management software providers, including eSight Energy, we're able to give engineering and automation teams multiple ways to gain the visibility and data they need to establish new energy usage policies and practices that significantly cut their utility bills," says Opto 22 CEO Mark Engman.

Cutting utility bills and having energy costs viewed as a "variable cost" was the theme echoed by presenter Dan Brown, vice president, Cascade Energy, at the energy event. Cascade Energy is a energy consultant/service provider that utilizes eSights energy monitoring software with its clients. Brown emphasized that reduced energy costs is now a management priority for many industrial manufacturers. However, he stated manufacturers don't know the “energy business" and need a service provider to implement energy management solutions."

Cascade offers manufacturers three tiers of energy management services: minor, modest and major. Minor allows a manufacturer to begin to monitor energy costs and reduce it by 2-5 percent via energy monitoring. The 2nd tier shoots for a 15 percent energy savings via energy monitoring, energy coaching and engineering follow-ups. The third tier targets capital upgrades to achieve savings of up to 30 percent.

Grant Gerke , ggerke@automationworld.com, is the Digital Managing Editor at Automation World magazine.

Opto 22
www.opto22.com

eSight Energy Inc.
www.esightenergy.com

Cascade Energy, Inc
www.cascadeenergy.com