Operational Flexibility Is an Energy Asset — If You Manage It Right

Schneider Electric's Thomas Kwan explains why chemical plants should map their loads before buying software, and why "the optimizer decides" isn't an operating philosophy.

Jonathan Katz, executive editor of Chemical Processing, recently spoke with Thomas Kwan, an energy transition expert at the Schneider Electric Sustainability Research Institute, about his most recent Energy Saver column for Chemical Processing, titled "The Flexible Chemical Plant: Scheduling Energy Use Without Sacrificing Throughput." Kwan, whose official title at Schneider is global vice president of strategic innovation and industrial ecosystems, wrote about how electrified compressors, separations and utilities can behave more like power brokers whose price refreshes every hour. He noted that plants running through a price spike are paying for steady-state, continuous operation they may not need, and he suggested that, to save energy, they must consider operational flexibility itself an energy asset. Kwan asked readers whether they knew which loads in their operation can move by minutes or hours, what that movement is worth under their energy tariff, and when product commitments, catalyst constraints or safety margins erase the benefit before it reaches the ledger.