Through their channel partners, these customers are working closely with manufacturers of electrical distribution and control equipment and systems to improve their power management skills and reduce operating costs. The development of systems such as Square D's POWERLOGIC and POWERLINK enable industrial and commercial sites to attain a measure of real-time monitoring and control over their power-related activities. Once outfitted with this type of technology, these customers can pinpoint operating inefficiencies and implement changes to better manage power consumption and reduce operating costs.

During a recent tour of Square D manufacturing facility in Smyrna, Tennessee, U.S., I was impressed that almost all of the switchgear, circuit breakers and monitor control centers being manufactured or assembled included the current generation of communications-enabled, multivariable digital monitoring instruments, including communications-enabled, digital power metering devices. In many respects, this metering device is the industrial power market's equivalent of a substation RTU. In some cases, there were even multiple monitoring and metering devices from multiple suppliers on the same piece of low-voltage or medium-voltage equipment.

The realization that advanced electric power type SCADA applications were being used by large energy users was a welcome surprise. In fact, this type of technology was installed many years ago in hundreds of industrial facilities. More recently, as monitoring control technology has become simplified, open, cost-effective and Windows-based, the technology has begun to spread among other industrial locations. The rationale lies in the industrial company's drive to maximize facility use and manufacturing up time.

In the larger, energy-intensive industrial companies where monitoring and control capabilities are now mature, energy managers seem as knowledgeable about technology issues as their mid-size electric utility operations manager counterparts. These energy managers have moved beyond basic consumption analysis and turned their attention to issues such as power quality, in-plant distribution management, sub-metering at production line levels, load control, and energy cost management. These are the same issues currently being addressed by utility operations managers.

It seems obvious that the more energy-intensive the industrial electricity consuming organization, the greater the understanding and commitment by that organization to manage electricity distribution and energy use. As deregulation sweeps the world and industrial electricity consumer choice options escalate, technological expertise will thrive. The energy managers at these facilities can justify the purchase of advanced power distribution management tools and systems to take full advantage of a competitive electricity market. Advanced energy management systems will ensure these companies remain competitive within their industry.

Utility T&D engineers and managers need to be aware that some of their customers are already able to electronically produce individual production line load profiles. Many industrial energy managers can now submit detailed charts to their electricity providers showing that incoming electricity was already "harmonics-impaired." Others can produce plots comparing kilowatt hour costs versus outage frequencies for all of their plants or retail store locations. Reports can be produced that identify low value energy suppliers.

The day is rapidly approaching when every energy manager will have centralized instantaneous access to power consumption patterns and load profile data for all of the company's industrial sites. A few large retail chains already remotely manage power distribution management and remotely control lighting from a central site. The use of these advanced technologies allows these companies to improve operating efficiencies and reduce their electricity costs. It also forces a utility to maintain staff expertise or risk being embarrassed by a customer who knows more than you do.