The "Linde Energy Manager" from Linde Material Handling (MH) provides comprehensive insights into the entire energy supply situation of a company and enables future-oriented forecasts through the use of artificial intelligence (AI). This not only makes it possible to avoid peaks in electricity consumption, reduce energy expenditure and lower CO2 emissions, but also allows users to actively participate in the energy market and carry out their energy purchasing in a methodical and organized manner. In doing so, Linde MH is expanding its existing range of services and positioning itself as a comprehensive energy expert. The consulting and project knowledge will initially be made available in Germany and will then be successively offered in other countries.
Rethinking the topic of energy
Today, companies in all industries are facing increasing challenges with regard to energy. These range from constantly securing the company's internal energy supply, to circumventing consumption peaks and lowering electricity costs, to reducing CO2 emissions in order to achieve self-defined or predefined sustainability goals.
The software connects to the interfaces of existing energy management systems from major vendors, collects the data and adds other information to create a detailed picture of energy consumption.
The so-called energy screening, which Linde MH carries out, takes place over a period of six weeks and documents the individual energy consumption as well as feeds from waste heat or photovoltaic systems in the customer company. As a result, potential savings and opportunities for CO2 reduction can be identified. This is done, for example, by reducing electricity load peaks by means of load management or a coordinated use of energy consumers and own energy sources. For example, the energy from photovoltaic systems can be used to charge the batteries of the industrial trucks at the weekend. The energy consumption evaluation can also be certified according to DIN ISO 50001.
To be able to plan future electricity consumption, Linde MH relies on the help of AI. The software adds additional information such as weather data to the existing data series and evaluates patterns in the historical load profile data. In this way, forecasts can be made for the future and become more and more precise over time. The software has already proven its worth at various Linde MH plants and led to considerable cost savings.
