UK foundry implements smart energy scheme

A West Midlands-based aluminium gravity die casting manufacturer has recently signed a ten-year deal with Open Energi to implement dynamic demand management in its manufacturing operations.

Using software to control its aluminium holding pots, Caparo Bridge Aluminium will help the UK’s National Grid balance electricity supply and demand and reduce CO2 emissions, while at the same time generate revenues of up to £25,000 per annum.

Caparo Bridge Aluminium has nearly 100 years of experience in supplying aluminium gravity die castings for the automotive, commercial vehicle and off-highway markets in the UK and overseas. Its Wednesbury-based plant has forty-six holding pots, which store molten aluminium at around 7500C. The material is kept at constant temperatures before it is poured into dies for the manufacture of the casting.

Open Energi’s Dynamic Demand software has converted the holding pots into smart devices, reacting instantaneously to changes in the electricity supply and demand across the UK network. The solution makes rapid adjustments to the pots’ energy consumption to help National Grid achieve this balance on a second-by-second basis. Because the changes are governed by the pots’ own controls and typically last only for a few minutes at a time, their performance is unaffected and has no impact on the operational process. After implementation the pots collectively deliver just over 1MW of response to help National Grid balance electricity supply and demand. This will help to reduce UK CO2 emissions from power stations by over 2,000 tonnes a year while Caparo Bridge Aluminium expects to generate revenues of almost £25,000 a year from the service.

Wayne Priest, Plant Director at Bridge Aluminium commented, “We are constantly looking at ways of reducing our overheads and energy is a massive part of that. Open Energi offered a different angle to the usual energy efficiency measures, many of which we have already implemented. Instead of saving us energy, they are helping us to turn some of our most energy-intensive assets into income.

“We undertook a blind trial of Dynamic Demand involving just 6 holding pots earlier this year. This meant that none of our operatives on the plant floor were aware that the pots’ energy consumption was being altered. No one noticed and it had no impact whatsoever on the quality or integrity of the end product.”