By Richard Crunden, CEO of Vistech Cooling Systems
UK manufacturing is facing a perfect storm of soaring energy prices and rising regulatory pressure to accelerate decarbonisation. UK industrial facilities now pay 50% more for electricity than their French and German peers, and with energy intensive sectors like cement, steel and paper, the UK industry is becoming internationally uncompetitive on both energy costs and carbon emissions. This also comes amidst the biggest drop of confidence among UK manufacturers since the COVID crisis hit in 2020.
A lesser-known factor driving industrial energy costs and consumption is the UK’s historic underinvestment in industrial cooling systems, leading to endemic water and energy waste. These systems are a hotchpotch developed in haphazard fashion over decades compounded by a chronic shortage of process engineering skills. This ageing web of infrastructure is also difficult to monitor and maintain and represents a growing liability to industry amidst rising energy costs and net zero regulations.
A fragmented mindset
Cooling directly impacts the efficiency of industrial processes and updating these systems can drive major cost reduction and carbon savings opportunities. However, British businesses have long fallen behind their competitors, with many cooling systems no longer fit for purpose. The prevalent ‘make do and mend’ mindset has led UK manufacturing to bolt on new components instead of modernising these systems. This disjointed approach reflects a shortage of process engineers with end-to-end industrial knowledge, resulting in only 12% of UK manufacturers actively improving industrial processes for energy efficiency.
These systems are often poorly understood by those responsible for their upkeep, leading to even more upheaval when issues arise. Responsibility often falls on a single non-specialist within the organisation, resulting in inefficiencies compounded by poor oversight; only 11% of UK manufacturers currently monitor their energy use and efficiency.
The hidden source of energy waste
The result is endemic energy waste, raising associated costs and carbon emissions. We’ve visited UK manufacturers that that are spending three to four times more than necessary on operating their facilities with some industries running cooling systems on full power round the clock.
The inefficient use of energy contributes to some major UK manufacturing industries being significantly more energy intensive than the EU average. Combined with the fact that electricity costs are substantially higher for UK manufacturers than for some EU competitors, this means that energy-related costs are harming their international competitiveness as well as jeopardising efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of hard-to-abate industries from steel to cement.
A holistic, bottom-up approach
UK manufacturers need to look at cooling as being central to competitive advantage, beyond saving energy and water. This shift means creating smart, sustainable and future-proofed processes and systems that align with net zero ambitions and enhance international competitiveness.
Instead of incrementally replacing individual components, companies should modernise and simplify cooling processes. For example, one manufacturer we worked with saved 410,000kW of electricity annually by improving its existing cooling system.
Data collection technologies allow for comprehensive performance surveys, from pump performance to fan running times, revealing key inefficiencies across industrial processes. This goldmine of data enables optimisation of everything from pump operation to equipment scheduling, lowering costs and emissions.
Smart data also helps remove excess capacity, creating leaner, more low-carbon processes. It enables preventive maintenance of vital systems further reducing costs. In future, this rich pool of data could be harnessed by Machine Learning (ML) to produce smart self-managing cooling processes continually adapting for efficiency gains.
In addition to modernising existing processes, companies can also introduce new systems to improve efficiency such as smart adiabatic coolers using up to 90% less water than conventional cooling towers. One customer was able to save around £70,000 per year with this approach.
With a shortage of process engineering skills, many manufacturers are now turning to external consultants to assess entire end-to-end processes and develop tailored solutions. Ultimately, process engineering skills are crucial to creating more holistic industrial processes designed to drive collective cost and carbon efficiencies.
Towards smarter industrial processes
The uncompetitive electricity consumption and costs for UK industries and accelerating adoption of smart manufacturing overseas, highlights the need for a fundamental overhaul of industrial processes. That is especially true as UK manufacturers lose ground in energy efficiency while regulatory pressures make water and energy waste and carbon emissions increasingly costly.
UK manufacturing must reimagine industrial processes as a differentiator, optimising them from the ground up for both energy costs to climate performance.
