Is Your Energy Bill Killing Your Profits? Smart Automation Is the Answer

Manufacturing

May 19

Every month, do you brace yourself for the inevitable: another sky-high energy bill?

Many businesses share the same frustration. Big or small, they are in the same boat as you.

The culprit often leans toward power-hungry machinery and inefficient workflows. What’s worse? Your control and monitoring systems mask the bleeding. They don’t warn you when motors draw too much power or when idle machines burn through electricity. They run in silence, oblivious to the changes.

What can you do to reduce electricity use and costs in manufacturing?

Verdusco Automation will show you the puzzle pieces in this article.

You’ll see why traditional systems fall short, how smart automation solves the problem, and case studies proving that energy efficiency is not a myth but a reality.

Why Traditional Systems Waste More Than You Think

Legacy systems don’t just age. They decay your margins.

Take a mid-sized pump manufacturer with nearly two decades under its belt. Their operation was running “fine.” Then, electricity bills ballooned by 60% in under two years. They blamed market rates at first. But deeper inspection told a different story:

● Furnaces for metal casting operated 18 hours a day with no dynamic load control.

● CNC machining & grinding lines relied on aging motors running at constant speeds, whether the machines were cutting or idle.

● All systems were blind to waste. No real-time diagnostics. No alerts when consumption spiked. No integration between energy usage and operational KPIs.

Every kilowatt-hour lost was absorbed into overhead.

Can you relate?

It’s not surprising.

Across food, beverage, pharmaceutical, and automotive manufacturing, the pattern repeats.

Legacy systems eat away at efficiency like rust on steel.

How Smart Automation Turns the Tide

Smart automation connects your machines, systems, and teams in real time. Here, at Verdusco Automation, we say it is the difference between watching the news at 10 PM and getting live updates as they happen.

Once equipped, you can monitor and optimize energy use moment to moment.

But what does smart automation exactly look like?

Let’s go back to the pump manufacturer from before. Here’s how they could tackle their issues:

● Furnaces: Implement real-time thermal feedback loops, coupled with PLC-based modulation systems. The result? Furnace energy consumption drops to 35% within weeks.

● CNC machines: Integration of intelligent VFDs (variable frequency drives) and adaptive machining logic. The machines will scale power use based on the load—like a car switching gears uphill versus coasting downhill. That change alone can slash grinding-line electricity usage by over 40%.

With lower energy consumption, the pump manufacturer generates fewer carbon emissions. They become more sustainable without compromising performance. Their employees will notice the difference too. Fewer breakdowns, quieter operations, and systems that actually worked with them, not against them.

As Henry Ford once said, “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”

Smart automation gets every part of your operation moving forward—together.

Reduce Electricity Use and Costs in Manufacturing

Let’s show you smart automation’s potential with a couple of case studies.

Beverage Bottling Facility Sees ROI in Under 9 months

A beverage bottling facility saw increasing downtime. And, at the same time, power consumption soared. The causes?

A diagram showing downtime issues and high energy consumption in manufacturing, including conveyor system jams and inefficient cooling motor operations. — **Fig. 1**. Pain points in the beverage bottling facility before smart automation.

Upgrading with integrated SCADA and intelligent motor controllers (IMCs) made all the difference:

➔ Operators can spot in real time underperforming sections, voltage spikes, motor overuse, and misalignments across the line with live visualization, diagnostics, and predictive alerts.

➔ Motors stopped running at constant full-speed operation, as IMCs enable dynamic adjustment to match actual load requirements. This setting also reduced wear.

➔ Duty cycles began to work according to real production demand. Motors no longer idle at full power during slow shifts or line transitions.

➔ Poor handoffs and cycle mismatches get out of the picture.
What’s the return on investment (ROI)?

Look at Figure 2 for the details.

**Fig. 2**. Benefits of smart automation in the beverage bottling facility.

Pharmaceutical Packaging Line Recovers Performance with Smart HVAC Integration

A pharma packager dealt with serious climate control issues. The conditions churn out high power consumption.

Illustration of climate control issues in pharmaceutical manufacturing, highlighting over-conditioning, HVAC inefficiencies, and energy waste caused by constant operation of air handling units, chillers, and exhaust fans. — **Fig. 3**. Pain points in the pharma packaging facility before smart automation.

Integrating a smart HVAC system tied to occupancy and production schedules turned everything around!

The implementation of a “smart shutdown” for off-shifts helped drop energy demand by 31%, with zero impact on product safety or air quality integrity.

The smart HVAC system can also be programmed with pharmaceutical-grade logic to maintain ISO Class conditions. The logic ensures compliance with FDA/GMP while saving on idle-time energy use.

For more details on the advantages, check out Figure 4.