How equipment automation helps to conserve resources

How equipment automation helps to conserve resources

FTLV is a tech startup from Latvia that offers a new concept for monitoring and management of industrial equipment and engineering systems in a wide range of facilities. The company's technological solutions help businesses maximize their operational efficiency, minimize human errors, and reduce equipment maintenance and repair costs. FTLV products are geared towards energy efficiency and cost reduction.

Energy efficiency is a must - have for businesses

“Modern businesses can’t afford to ignore the ESG agenda,” says Dmitry Mukhin, Marketing director. “European countries are actively implementing laws and standards obliging companies to comply with requirements to reduce resource consumption and negative impact on the environment. Failure to comply with these standards may result in fines and reputational risks. Therefore, we take this factor into account when creating our solutions.”

A clear illustration of the EU's focus on sustainable development is the European Green Deal introduced in 2021. It suggests that by 2050, Europe will become the first climate-neutral continent, and of course, not without the participation of the business sector. The document contains strict emissions standards, support for infrastructure upgrades and investments in clean technologies. Compliance with such standards and laws becomes not only a legal obligation, but also a strategic priority for companies operating in the region.

The EU also has an emissions trading system (ETS), which obliges large industrial companies to buy emission permits. Enterprises that do not fully use the established limits can resell the remaining quota to other organizations. This creates an additional financial incentive to reduce energy consumption.

Economy as a driver for growth

The implementation of energy efficiency solutions requires financial investments as well as time and effort, but in the long term, it can be an excellent investment and bring significant financial benefits to the business.

“Reducing electricity and heat consumption in itself already entails a reduction in utility costs, but that’s not all,” notes Dmitry. — Many governments and regional organizations provide tax incentives for companies that implement measures to reduce energy consumption. Having a clear ESG strategy also increases the investment attractiveness of a business and can help attract capital.”

The way a business approaches environmental issues is also important for the end consumer. According to a McKinsey survey, 66% of respondents consider this factor when making purchasing decisions, and Nielsen analysts found that 73% of millennials are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products and services.

How can automation help

Automation of engineering systems in facilities allows for greater energy efficiency. FTLV solutions offer a comprehensive approach to this task and, as a result, can help achieve up to 20% savings on energy consumption.

For example, our company’s solutions offer the configuration of special operating modes for equipment at night. “We are especially proud of our energy saving algorithms, which allow us to take into account the energy exchange price - this is particularly relevant in the realities of the European markets,” says Dmitry.

Equipment fault tolerance is another important factor that is taken into account in FTLV solutions. Monitoring automation allows businesses to identify and eliminate potential breakdowns in advance. With timely maintenance, equipment lasts longer, eliminating the need for its disposal and repurchase.

“At the slightest failure, our system analyses the chain of incidents, which allows us to draw conclusions about the malfunction in a timely manner,” explains a company spokesperson. — The signal about what exactly needs to be corrected or replaced goes directly to the service company. As a result, the situation simply does not lead to a serious accident, equipment shutdown or failure.”

The influence of staff qualifications and the human factor on the operation of the equipment is greatly reduced. When all systems at a facility are controlled automatically and from a single interface, it becomes easier to prevent incidents - there is no need to manually check the status of each of them. All this is directly related not only to saving resources, but also to the environmental agenda, especially when it comes to industries where accidents are unacceptable.

Control system assembled from ready - made modules

How do you build an effective system to automate equipment control? This may sound like an extremely ambitious task, but everything is much simpler if the modular principle is applied. The FTLV product, FTrace, is built around this modular principle. It involves assembling a ready-made system based on well-developed modules and previously created code libraries. All elements are unified, optimized and tested in operation, which allows them to be quickly assembled into a complete product. "It works like a constructor," explains Dmitry Mukhin. - The equipment and programs are ideally combined and work well with each other. All is needed is to select the right solution based on the client’s specific request. The beauty of this method is that it requires minimal development, and the client ends up with a complete system in a minimal amount of time.”

Monitoring automation helps businesses significantly save resources and, as a result, solve a number of problems - both operational and strategic. The FTrace concept significantly simplifies this process. You can learn more about FTLV products and solutions for monitoring engineering systems by visiting our website: https://ft-lv.com/.