Maintenance Matters Focus on: Smart Maintenance 12 | Plant & Works Engineering www.pwemag.co.uk October/November 2026 Rising energy costs mean manufacturers are looking more closely than ever at how their factories consume power and where unnecessary energy is being lost. However, while most businesses know how much energy an entire site consumes, far fewer understand where that energy is being used, or wasted, at machine level. The UK Government has announced the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme, which will help to cut energy bills by up to 25 per cent for more than 10,000 manufacturers in early 2027. This will be welcomed by the companies, but it shows how serious the energy issues are at the moment. Without visibility into individual assets and processes, manufacturers can spend thousands on electricity without knowing which machines are operating inefficiently, where maintenance issues are emerging or whether equipment is consuming power when it is producing nothing at all. The biggest opportunity lies in treating energy as another source of operational data, rather than simply another utility bill. If you know how much energy a machine should use to produce a part, any deviation tells you something. It could be an overworked motor, a compressed air leak, a vacuum pump running continuously or simply a machine that’s still consuming power when it should be idle. This shift from measuring total energy consumption to analysing energy at machine level is changing how manufacturers approach both efficiency and maintenance. Looking beyond the electricity meter Real-time analytics allows manufacturers to build a performance profile for every machine. Instead of simply recording how much electricity a factory consumes over a day or month, engineers can compare energy use against production output, operating conditions and machine health. If a production line continues to draw significant power during downtime, it may indicate that equipment is not entering standby mode correctly, or at all. On a packaging line, for example, infeed conveyors or rotary tables may continue to run when then machine is blocked further down the line. Equally, a motor that suddenly requires more power than usual may be signalling the early stages of mechanical wear. The same principle extends beyond electrical consumption. Modern automation platforms can combine energy data with other signals from the machine, such as torque speed, vibration, temperature, valve states, flow rate, environmental conditions and machine state to provide a far richer picture of machine performance. For example, increasing vibration alongside higher energy consumption often points towards equipment operating outside its normal condition. Rather than waiting for a failure, manufacturers can identify these trends early and investigate before production is affected. Compressed air is another example. Often described as one of the most expensive factors in manufacturing, even small leaks can waste significant amounts of energy. By monitoring pressure, flow and machine state in real time, manufacturers can detect changes that suggest leaks or air being supplied during idle periods , reducing both energy use and operating costs. Whole factory efficiency Energy optimisation does not stop at the production line. While manufacturers often focus on improving machine efficiency, building management can have an equally significant impact. Heating production areas while loading doors remain open, lighting unused areas, running extraction when the process is inactive, or failing to recover excess heat all contribute to unnecessary energy consumption. Modern automation systems increasingly allow manufacturers to combine machine data with building management information. Instead of treating production equipment and facilities as separate systems, they become part of a single energy strategy. Data creates smarter maintenance Energy analytics also supports predictive maintenance, one of the fastest-growing applications of industrial data. For manufacturers producing high-volume consumer goods, even short periods of downtime can be extremely expensive. Rather than reacting after equipment fails, predictive Why energy analytics matter Beth Ragdale, software manager at Beckhoff UK, explains why real-time analytics is becoming one of the most effective tools for improving energy efficiency and reducing operational costs.
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