CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

7 December 2005

Product News

AspenTech's Energy Cost Management Solution Dramatically Reduces Energy Costs for Process Manufacturers

Aspen Technology, Inc . announced the launch of Aspen Energy Cost Manager, the latest in AspenTech's comprehensive range of energy management solutions for the process industries. The new solution will enable process manufacturers to achieve significant cost and environmental benefits by helping plant sites avoid excess energy consumption in their day-to-day operations. With energy prices near record highs, Aspen Energy Cost Manager can deliver payback in less than six months.

Aspen Energy Cost Manager uses real-time operating data to identify when energy use in the plant is higher than necessary, and provides the responsible personnel with recommendations for the most favorable course of action to restore operations to a more energy efficient condition. For energy-intensive process manufacturing sites, such as a petrochemicals plant or oil refinery, customer studies show that the solution can deliver energy cost reductions of up to 5 percent.

"AspenTech has a long tradition in helping process manufacturers manage and optimize their energy consumption, using solutions for process modeling, pinch analysis, advanced process control and utilities planning and optimization," said Blair Wheeler, Senior Vice President Marketing, AspenTech. "Aspen Energy Cost Manager is an important addition to our offering, enabling companies to proactively manage their demand-side energy costs based on a clear understanding of the financial impact of their operating decisions."

"Even before its release, a major chemical customer adopted the solution as the standard for energy cost management across a division after early studies demonstrated significant potential returns," added Wheeler. "We are excited by the opportunity Aspen Energy Cost Manager represents to help process manufacturers improve their margins in increasingly costly energy markets. Excluding crude oil purchases, the cost of energy in the refining industry can now exceed 60% of the total operating cost, while in the chemicals industry a corresponding figure of 40% is now common."

Most chemical or refining processes experience significant variability in their energy efficiency, as a result of changes in process conditions, different operating strategies and poor control over wasteful practices. This means that plants are frequently using more energy than necessary, a situation which is often neglected because managers only have access to historical performance data and cannot react until it is too late.

Aspen Energy Cost Manager helps companies resolve this problem by enabling them to measure and monitor energy use in real time, comparing performance against "intelligent" dynamic targets which are varied to reflect the current operating conditions. The solution notifies users when current energy use exceeds the target, shows the cost of this deviation, including contractual obligations and penalties, and alerts the person best placed to take corrective action. A list of recommended actions is provided, with further information available if more detailed analysis is required.

Aspen Energy Cost Manager is now commercially available.

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