Abstract
As the mining sector actively looks to reduce its environmental footprint while ramping up supply of critical minerals, mining companies are seeking to adopt technologies that can viably transition operations to using more renewable energy. The mining sector is energy intensive: successfully transitioning away from energy dense fossil fuels requires a combination of rethinking mine design and accelerating the convergence of technological advancements aiming to improve both energy and operational efficiencies.
The increased dependency on renewable energy will require unprecedented levels of data monitoring and management, as well as agile decision making and optimization to ensure mining operations can be as (or more) productive than when using fossil fuels. Increased digital maturity at mines to optimize energy usage is now becoming an industry imperative and a key pillar towards achieving net-zero mining.
While energy management of renewable energy generation, energy storage and microgrids have been successfully implemented at mining operations, monitoring, analyzing and optimizing energy usage has not been adopted widely (or successfully) in many sectors. Real-time energy usage monitoring, energy analytics, reporting and forecasting, demand response and load management, and fleet management systems will all need to communicate effectively together if the energy transition can be successfully executed for both greenfield projects and legacy mines.
As an industry, we need to communicate clearly to vendors, industry experts and cross-sectoral solution providers that the need for mature, turn-key and holistic energy management systems, bolstered by cost-effective and rapid timeframes to implement sophisticated communication and information networks, should be top of mind. This presentation will be a call to action for the industry, presenting the ideal configuration of a holistic Energy Management System (EMS) for mining operations looking to adopt increased levels of renewable energy usage.
Findings from current EMS offerings across multiple sectors will be summarized, as well as a roadmap on how to viably implement a holistic EMS for both new and legacy mining operations. This presentation will also outline barriers towards successful EMS adoption, from cybersecurity risks to workforce upskilling, as well as how Canada and other regions are providing financial incentives and funding to accelerate adoption of energy efficiency solutions.