From a financial perspective, an operational perspective and because it is the right thing to do, it makes sense to use energy as efficiently as possible. Sustainable Energy Management is the key to efficient utilization of this scarce, and expensive, resource. The focus is shifting away from a project based approach to energy management towards a system based approach to energy management. While energy efficiency improvement projects are an essential component of an energy management program, they are not, in themselves, sustainable. There is a step change in efficiency as soon as a project is completed, but efficiency starts to drop off again over time if the systems to support energy efficiency are not there. Energy management should be self-sustaining, something that is done by all employees on a day to day basis and not just project based. New Gold’s New Afton Mine has realized this and is actively doing something about it. The new ISO 50001 Energy Management System was launched in June 2011. It is a systems based approach to energy management and New Afton mine saw this as the vehicle for integrating continual energy performance improvement across all functional areas of the organization. Starting in late 2012, New Afton was the first mine in Canada to start implementation of the ISO 50001 system. As measurement forms the foundation of any Energy Management System, in late 2012, New Afton implemented a PI based Real Time Energy Management Information System (RtEMIS). This is a product of RtTech Software, ADM Systems Engineering (Dartmouth, NB) was the integrator and Indel Control Services (Ingersoll, ON) managed the infra-structure. A comprehensive network of 120 electrical sub-meters, 6 gas meters and a data concentrator was established to hand off data to the OSIsoft PI system in place at the mine. RtEMIS processes this data to provide energy cost reporting, energy intensity analysis by cost center, track energy performance against baselines for operational performance targets and track the impact of energy efficiency improvements. The project, from planning to completion took only 6 months. Using ISO 50001, RtEMIS and PI data, New Afton hope to achieve a 5% to 8% annual reduction in energy costs This presentation serves to outline the implementation of the RtEMIS and the ISO 50001 EnMS at New Afton Mine, the challenges faced and to share the benefits realized thus far.
Speaker
Andrew Cooper
Andrew Cooper is a Professional Engineer and the Energy Specialist at New Gold’s New Afton Mine, based in Kamloops, British Columbia in Canada. Andrew graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa and started his career as an Engineer in the South African gold mines. After leaving the mines, Andrew worked as an Electrical, Mechanical and Maintenance Engineer in the steel and petro-chemical industries. Understanding the importance of finance and management in an organization, Andrew completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree, majoring in Management and Economics. Andrew moved to Canada with his wife, Kim, to be the Electrical Engineer at Sifto Salt Mine in Goderich, Ontario, reportedly the world’s largest underground salt mine. He was later promoted to Engineering Manager at the mine. It was at Sifto that Andrew really started to understand the need for good energy management practices and the impact of energy efficiency improvement on the bottom line. As a member of the Ontario Mining Association’s Energy Committee, Andrew was exposed to the energy management challenges and successes of Ontario’s large mining industry. After completing a Certified Energy Manager’s course, Andrew was approached to be the Energy Specialist at New Gold’s New Afton mine, the position he holds today. New Gold took advantage of BC Hydro’s Power Smart Energy Manager program, a program which provides funding to BC Hydro industrial customers to help them employ someone to focus on setting up energy management systems at their organization. With the backing of the New Gold management team, Andrew has been instrumental in setting up an Energy Management Information System and in driving the ISO 50001 Energy Management System initiative. In addition he has initiated and managed several energy efficiency studies and projects. Andrew sees himself as a physical representation of New Gold’s commitment to Energy Management and is passionate about making energy management sustainable at an organization. He believes that continual energy performance improvement should be what is done by all employees on a day to day basis as part of what they do and sees huge value in ISO 50001 being the vehicle to make this a reality. “It’s also the right thing to do” says Andrew, “We’re reducing the impact on the environment and getting a financial payback for doing so”.