Abitibi-Consolidated Inc.’s mill in Thorold, ON, has been lowering its energy costs for about five years with the help of cost-management software made by E2MS Inc., a privately held software firm in …
Abitibi-Consolidated Inc.’s mill in Thorold, ON, has been lowering its energy costs for about five years with the help of cost-management software made by E2MS Inc., a privately held software firm in Whitby, ON.
Among other things, the software gives the mill an accurate assessment of its energy use. This becomes even more important in a deregulated market, which operates in real-time pricing. In such a market, every evening the utility releases the next day’s hourly prices based on generating capacity, demand and other market forces. “The software calculates when it’s best to shift some of its load,” says Terry Baskin, E2MS’s director of marketing.
For large energy users like A-C, that’s important, as is closely monitoring the bill it receives from the utility. “It wants to make sure the bill from the utility is accurate,” Baskin notes. Such software can cost up to $150 000 per plant. But the selling point is that the software-maker promises customers a one-year payback period.
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