Energy consumption is like background noise. Until you watch it, you do not even notice it is there. Yet that quiet hum can cost a company a lot: in needlessly high bills, in overloaded reserved capacity, in badly timed operation. EGÚ HV Laboratory shows that even a technically demanding operation can be kept firmly in hand.
A world-class laboratory with global reach
“We are an accredited and fully independent very high voltage test laboratory. We test equipment for electricity transmission and distribution for customers all over the world,” says Jan Lachman, who runs the company as its managing director.
Alongside testing, the company does research and development, mostly with Czech energy companies. That level of expertise sets an equally high bar for the precision and reliability of the operation. “Every piece of equipment has to be operated with absolute precision. But we want to know just as precisely how much energy we consume,” Lachman adds.
Energy intensity: a challenge and an opportunity
The laboratory consumes in the lower tens of MWh a month. Long-running tests drive most of it, for example tests with temperature cycles. And because the operation often runs around the clock, swings in demand are an everyday reality.
“Looking for savings in the tests themselves is difficult. We cannot shorten the processes, because that would compromise their quality. Even so, there are areas where consumption can be optimised, for example scheduling equipment over time, or reactive power compensation,” Lachman explains.
The road to good data and good decisions
“Our goal was to understand better when and where we consume the most energy. We wanted to know what our daily load diagrams look like, where the extremes come from and what can be done about them,” Lachman says of the motivation for deploying Enmon.
The laboratory now watches its consumption in real time. It sees current demand, long-term trends, peaks and options for optimising the reserved capacity with its electricity supplier. “With the number of test rigs still growing, it was important for us to keep that growth in consumption under control. That is exactly what Enmon lets us do,” Lachman says.
An external energy manager reads the data
Getting the data is the first step. For it to bring real change, it has to be reviewed regularly, connected to context and turned into concrete measures. “In our operation that is very time consuming. And at the same time we want someone to do it systematically and expertly,” Lachman says.
That is why the laboratory is arranging an external energy manager service, providing long-term help with analysing Enmon data, proposing optimisation measures and overseeing consumption. It means not just visibility, but concrete steps towards efficiency, without loading the work onto its own team.
"At EGÚ HV Laboratory they approached this systematically. First they wanted to genuinely understand their consumption, and only then, on the basis of data, did they start thinking about specific measures. That is exactly the approach that works, and we recommend it to other organisations."