Industrial IT the key to emissions trading

Innovative industrial control technologies and automation IT will be key to leveraging potential Australian carbon trading schemes into business benefits, according to Rockwell Automation Australia.

Rockwell's managing director, Don Werner said that most industrial companies already have the data required to optimise operations and reduce emissions on the plant floor "“ the challenge is accessing and acting on it.

"Climate change is fast becoming an Australian business, not just a political issue," Werner said, citing the 2006 call to action raised by the Australian Business Roundtable on Climate Change report.

"All indicators point to a carbon or emissions trading market being established sometime in Australia in the next few years. And we're talking big dollars. Those companies which prepare early in a bid to reduce emissions stand to reap the benefits of a significant new source of revenue," he said.

Werner believes the challenge of reducing carbon emissions is likely to follow the "˜80/20 rule': "Of all the options to reduce emissions, around 20% will be easy one-off projects that provide immediate benefits.

"But for the remaining 80%, much more thought and planning is required. This is where the industry needs to leverage the real-time information from the dynamic plant environment: real-time data that will allow the plant to respond to changing production demands and reduce emissions."

According to Werner, successful acquisition and utilisation of this plant floor data will depend on two key factors:

• The deployment of a plant-wide and tailored control and automation IT system that takes into account who needs what information when and where; and
• The seamless and scalable nature of this system to provide genuine integration and close-coupling of communications.