Podcast: How electrification is helping manufacturers meet their net zero goals
Trevor Joelson is an energy and decarbonization service account executive at Trane. Over the past ten years, Trevor has held various roles in corporate energy and sustainability management and has become an expert in the energy markets and how the supply-side of energy connects to the built environment. In his current role, Trevor works with manufacturers to help them establish strategies and programs to meet decarbonization objectives. Trevor recently spoke with Plant Services managing editor Anna Townshend about utilizing electrification as a growing part of your plant’s emissions reduction strategy.
Below is an excerpt from the podcast:
PS: Today, we are talking about electrification for manufacturers. What are you hearing from your customers when it comes to electrification efforts? How often are they having these discussions and how much of a priority is it for them?
TJ: Well, I think the best thing I can point to is right before this discussion, I had a conversation around electrification for a large industrial manufacturer that is really starting to focus in on how they're going to electrify the heat within their facilities. And in general, we've seen an increasing trend around electrification, as customers are on some type of net zero journey. And when you're on a net zero journey, lots of times, you focus on renewable energy at first, or energy efficiency, and then you start to see this nagging thing that is your Scope One fossil fuel emissions, and you realize that you're going to need to address that, and that there's not necessarily the cleanest path to be able to do that. So as customers are setting those goals, and they're starting to really go after them in earnest, and large manufacturers are, electrification is recognized as the high pole in the tent, and we're seeing that customers want to be able to have a plan in place and have a plan that's going to align to those sustainability commitments.
PS: Yeah, the clock is really ticking in many industries for some of those climate change efforts, specifically, as you mentioned, in terms of the greenhouse gas emissions. So it's a big issue for industry. It's a huge challenge, but we're glad to have you here to help outline where industry is at.
TJ: If I can just add another comment to it specific to electrification, what we've recognized is if a customer has put out a goal and that goal says net zero, which means that you're not going to have fossil fuels within your operations. And if that goal is 2040 or sooner, the reality is the next piece of equipment that you buy that utilizes fossil fuels is going to outlive that goal. Most equipment life is 15 to 20 years, and by the time you get it installed, you have less than 15 years before your goal is going to be in place. So while that ticking clock is certainly happening, there's also the reality of the life cycle and useful life of equipment that these manufacturers are thinking about.
PS: It's a big, big investment. Well, let's talk more about how you're helping plants use electrification to save energy and to save money. When manufacturers are getting started, what should they be thinking about in a project like this, and what are some of the typical pitfalls to avoid?
TJ: In terms of starting, I'm going to go back to the life of the assets. The best place for a manufacturer to start their journey is where they need to renew an existing asset. They have something that's aged out. It's creating issues within their built environment or their operations, and it needs to have a replacement. And maybe it's using fossil fuels today, but it has the opportunity to move to a more sustainable, all-electric source. So having a clear understanding of your asset inventory, the life of all of those assets, and then a plan around it is the starting point of a journey for a large customer.
In terms of pitfalls that we see customers run into with electrification, the number one pitfall is making sure that you have enough electrical infrastructure, if you are replacing a natural gas heating mechanisms with an electric heating mechanism, that can have huge power requirements. And there's a heavy narrative right now about all of the electrical demand we have across North America and across the globe certainly, AI [artificial intelligence] demand, and all those things that you've covered in the past. If you're looking to electrify your heat, and you're a manufacturer that's going to be increasing your electrical load, finding the availability from your utility, and then at your site itself, having the infrastructure to be able to support all those electrification requirements, it can be a huge hurdle to overcome.
Two ways we're helping customers overcome that, and sorry to go on a little bit of a run of conversation here, but two ways is having really efficient electric heat. And the way that we're doing that is through heat pumps, or we are doing something that's called heat recovery, where we're actually able to secure useful heat off of another process. So we don't even need to actually manufacture any net new heat, rather we're recovering it and making it useful to displace natural gas.
PS: Great. That was a really interesting example, and I've heard some other examples of the heat recovery used in industry. It's a very interesting way to fight that battle with power. There's also questions about the reliability of the power grid that we have right now, and as we put more on it, it's only going to get more stressed.
Alright, well, let's look at a specific customer example. As I understand, you work with a company called EnerSys. They're a battery manufacturer. So, can you talk about some of the ways that you're working with them to eliminate their direct fossil fuel use by, I believe, 2040 is their goal?
