Carlo Gavazzi kicked off its series of free cross-country half-day seminars on solutions for energy management and power quality monitoring across Canada in Mississauga, Ont., on Sept. 29, presenting crowds with ways to control energy use and potential product solutions.

“Simple changes will produce saving” was the take-away message from the Energy Management Summit. And unless you have the necessary data, the company says, you cannot manage your energy costs.

Duncan Curd, vice-president of sales in Canada, believed proper energy management is a critical area for Canadian manufacturers and business owners to begin focusing their resources — if they have not already. “I think it’s an area Canadian industry is lacking,” he said prior to the afternoon session. “Energy costs are a major factor in manufacturing and in running a business. It’s one of the levers manufacturers have to increase productivity.”

He warned that broad-ranging government policies — such as green initiatives and energy reduction efforts — will become more prevalent and that properly controlled energy use is one way to ensure global competitiveness.

Product specialist Domenic Capobianco gave a bulk of the seminar presentation, starting off with the statistic that Canada ranks as the most wasteful country among G8 nations. He then went over potential power quality issues, such as surges, sags, transients, harmonics and frequency variations, and overviewed the terminology surrounding power management and billing.

“Industry surveys indicate that by making changes in procedures and the way we conduct business the average facility can reduce its energy consumption 10 to 20 percent,” he said. Some methods to control energy he mentioned included using less electricity (turning off unused loads and replacing worn or poor-efficiency equipment), managing demand (load sifting and shedding) and correcting power factors (minimizing idling or lightly load motors and installing capacitors on AC circuits).

During the product description section, dozens of questions were asked by visitors and subsequently answered by Capobianco (and other Carlo Gavazzi reps in attendance), with most in attendance very engaged in the offered solutions, such as its power analyzers, transducers, energy meters and the associated software.

There was also a product special available for attendees.

Over the next few months, the company says, these energy management seminars will be a first step to providing the solutions companies need to improve their power quality, reduce energy usage and increase their profitability, as energy costs are currently the third largest expense for most manufacturers.

As for who should attend, the summits are primarily designed for plant, facility, energy and sustainability managers, along with specifying engineers, construction engineers and contractors.

Interested attendees should visit www.GavazziOnline.com/emsummit for more information on future events and to register. Registration is on a first come, first serve basis.

• Kitchener, Ont., Oct. 6, 2009
• Ottawa, Oct. 8, 2009
• Vancouver, Oct. 15, 2009
• Edmonton, Oct. 20, 2009
• Calgary, Oct. 22, 2009
• Quebec City, Nov. 3, 2009
• Montreal, Nov. 5, 2009
• Saskatoon, Nov. 17, 2009
• Winnipeg, Nov. 19, 2009
• Halifax, Dec. 1, 2009
• St. John's, N.L., Dec. 3, 2009
• Sudbury, Ont., Dec. 9, 2009