to put on the wire. It’s a pittance.”

Saving on energy doesn’t necessarily mean a major upgrade to the control system. A lot of energy savings can be identified by adding relatively simple monitors to the automation system. “Automation certainly helps with energy efficiency. We put in simple systems that monitor the energy use,” says Terry Gebert, vice president of manufacturing and process solutions at Rockwell Automation Inc., the Milwaukee-based automation vendor. “The system has additional sensors and software for the monitoring.”

Another low-cost, low-technology way to save energy is to optimize the actual running of plant equipment. “During the course of the day, how much of your machine time is active production?” asks Parsec’s Azad. “We had four hours of production, but we ran another two hours before we shut down. It’s amazing how much you can save by coordinating production with run time.”

Many plants are cutting their energy costs and reducing their carbon footprint by switching to renewable sources of energy. “In the short term, you fix what you have, but in the long term, you look at alternative fuel sources,” says Rockwell’s Gebert. “There’s a huge push for alternative energy sources, and a lot of alternative systems are going into plants. We’re seeing biofuels, solar power and wind power being used.”

Look, we’re green

For control system suppliers, one of the big reasons for providing green tools and technology is that it makes them more competitive. In some cases, plants are going green because of customer demand. “Wal-Mart and comparable stores are requiring suppliers to sign statements about lowering their carbon footprint by certain amounts,” says T-Tek’s Traff. “By lowering energy costs, you give your public image a boost, but you also get cost benefits.”

Many companies are showing the world they’ve become environmentally conscious as a way to buy good will. “Green is becoming a marketing tool, a marketing ploy,” says Arun Sinha, director of business development at Opto 22. “As we become greener, we put it out there for the public to know. And they feel more comfortable doing business with a company that is making an effort on the environment.”

Plants are going green all over the globe. Plant operators are reducing energy use and switching to alternative energy sources. The greening of the plant is certainly a boost to corporate image, but the real driver is improved efficiencies and reduced costs. Many of the efficiencies are coming from control technology. Plant operators are proving the ROI of green in the same manner they would argue for new technology to improve uptime. The boardroom is getting behind the effort because green pays in cost savings.

To read the accompanying sidebar, go to www.automationworld.com/feature-4350.