How Can We Accurately Track Energy Use with Diesel Generators at a Remote Site?

Request for Support in Recording Energy Consumption

Can I request your support and guidelines to record energy consumption, which will help us conserve the energy being used at our site? Due to the remote access of our site, we do not have an electrical supply; rather, we generate power with two diesel generators, keeping one as standby. Our generator can show only the current consumption as per the load. I am not able to calculate the energy consumption per hour, day, week, or month. Are there any ways or calculations to find out the energy consumption concerning the delivery of diesel supply?

Please do the needful. Looking forward to your reply. Thank you in advance.

Regards,

Understanding Diesel Generator Energy Consumption

Diesel generator sets cannot be directly related to consumption. For example, whether you are running just one bulb or a thousand, the calculation involves determining which equipment is running and its rating. By assessing this, you can calculate the load and consumption. To gain a clear understanding of consumption, you can install an electrical meter on all your equipment.

Regards,
Capt. Rajeshwar Singh

Thank you for your reply. I am not sure about the cost of an electrical meter in Saudi Arabia. At this point, top management may not approve having an electrical meter for every piece of equipment. Would you please guide me if there is any simple method that I can follow or that suits our requirements?

Regards,

The cost of a smart electrical meter in India is Rs. 4000 or less. You may find cheaper and better quality options in Saudi. Also, calculate your consumption on-site after reviewing the daily report to determine which equipment worked for how many hours/days, etc. Link provided below: [BSES Delhi Energy Calculator](http://www.bsesdelhi.com/HTML/wb_energycalculator.html).

Regards,
Capt

Dear Thi4, this is a peculiar problem associated with remote areas where you have to depend on DG sets as the grid supply is not available. Two DG sets are okay, but as others pointed out, you have to run one and the same DG set whether you require only bulbs on or motors to operate. My suggestion is, at best, you should have a smaller DG set, say 25 kVA or 100 kVA, and also 100, 580 kVA, etc., as you might require depending on the load to be connected. For example, during off-duty, you might run only for lighting, for which a 25 kVA smaller DG set should suffice. Likewise, when on duty, during which you have to run other equipment, machines, etc., so the load will increase, and hence you have to run a bigger DG set, say 580 kVA, and so on. To enable this, you can have a dedicated line for lesser consuming items like lighting, fans, etc., which can be connected with a smaller set, and others via a separate line with a bigger set. In other words, as you know, you don't use a crane to lift a desktop PC, but at the same time, you deploy a bigger crane to lift and move a CNC machine. Thus, it will help you to lessen or optimize diesel consumption. Both can also be connected through a common meter to ascertain units consumed vis-a-vis hours of DG run and diesel consumption.

One more method is you have to maintain a register/folio of every light, appliance, and equipment and note down the number of minutes they are on, and you can compute the units consumed by every such unit by applying the rated capacity of those items. Since bulbs, fans, and other office equipment like PCs/printers, etc., consume comparatively less power, it's not likely to address your high cost of power. Whereas you have to watch the dry run of your connected equipment and machines to have effective control.

Regards,