Monitoring and targeting of plant utilities at INCO Limited, Sudbury, Garson Mine

"This paper reviews the installation, start-up, and operation of a comprehensive monitoring and targeting management technique in which all plant utilities (i.e., electricity, natural gas, compressed air, and water) are managed as controllable resources in the same way that raw materials, mined ore, personnel and capital are managed.The essential elements of monitoring and targeting (M&T) include:•gathering in a systematic, disciplined way the utility information by energy account centres;•closely monitoring the utilities used in each centre and comparing them with production on a common time base (e.g., kWh/ton per day);•bench marking and target setting to pro-vide attainable energy reduction goals which can be further refined as they are achieved; and•establishing an implementation plant that may provide efficiency enhancing benefits to various operating areas within the plant.The M&T system will reduce utility consumption per unit of production on a continuing basis.This would translate into sustained operating cost and waste. M&T will also provide better information for assessing the plant operation and progressively implementing further enhancements."