Automated energy efficiency project identification in the gold mining industry

The ISO 50001 standard for energy management is a relatively new standard, however companies are starting to invest in Energy Management Systems (EnMSs) based on this standard to manage their energy use and reporting. Further, some of these EnMSs connect directly to a mine supervisory control and data acquisition system to acquire the required information. Accessing data from the SCADA system presents a unique opportunity for the EnMS to identity new energy efficiency projects based on the data collected. Typically projects implemented on gold mines are focused on reducing the consumption of large energy consumers like the cooling-, pumping-, ventilation- and compressed air systems. Analyses of the data collected for ISO 5000 I purposes can help identity new energy efficiency projects in these areas automatically. This article therefore investigates the different project types that can be identified using existing data sources. The parameters required for project identification are specified and ranges for these parameters, which point to project potential, is given. In order to prove the efficacy of this system, it is then implemented on a mine. The system identified five projects and quantified the potential savings for three of these projects. The total potential savings identified was 10.66 MW. It is therefore proven that certain energy savings projects can be identified automatically using these parameters as part of an EnMS.