PECM Issue 79 2026 | Page 46

Turning policy ambition into practical control

CONTROL & AUTOMATION POWERING NET ZERO

GEMININ DATA LOGGERS
Turning policy ambition into practical control
Energy efficiency has moved from a long-term aspiration to an immediate operational priority for manufacturers. Rising energy prices, increasing regulatory pressure and the UK’ s commitment to Net Zero are forcing organisations to reassess how energy is used, measured and controlled across production environments.
Recent government announcements signalling further funding and support for industrial energy efficiency underline the scale of the challenge. The intention is clear: to help UK manufacturers remain competitive while reducing carbon emissions and improving resilience. However, for many businesses, the gap between policy ambition and practical implementation remains significant.
The cost pressure facing UK manufacturing
Energy-intensive manufacturing sectors have been particularly exposed to volatility in energy markets. Electricity and gas costs now represent a substantial and unpredictable proportion of operating expenditure, with knockon impacts for margins, investment planning and long-term viability.
At the same time, Net Zero commitments are reshaping expectations around energy use. Manufacturers are being asked not only to reduce consumption, but to demonstrate measurable progress. Without a clear understanding of where, when and how energy is being consumed, this becomes a difficult task, and one that risks pushing energy-intensive processes offshore if costs cannot be controlled.
Used across manufacturing, process engineering and facilities management applications, Tinytag Energy Loggers enable organisations to collect accurate data without the complexity of permanent installations.
Why visibility matters
Many manufacturing sites rely on high-level meter data or utility bills to assess energy performance. While useful for tracking overall consumption, these sources rarely provide the granularity needed to identify inefficiencies within individual processes, machines or production lines.
Energy use in manufacturing is dynamic. Demand fluctuates during start-up and shutdown, varies
between shifts, and is influenced by maintenance schedules, equipment ageing and changes in throughput. Without time-based, process-level insight, inefficiencies can remain hidden and opportunities for optimisation missed.
This is where targeted energy monitoring plays a critical role. By measuring real energy consumption over time, manufacturers can begin to answer fundamental questions: which assets consume the most energy, how demand changes during production cycles, and where avoidable waste occurs.
Supporting smarter decisions with data
Energy loggers provide a practical way to capture this data without disrupting operations. Deployed temporarily or semi-permanently, they allow engineers and energy managers to monitor electrical consumption at machine, process or departmental level.
This information supports a wide range of use cases: validating the performance of new equipment,
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