This article is for plant managers, energy managers, maintenance managers, production managers and continuous improvement leaders who are preparing an energy audit or want to understand what their machines consume when they are not producing. It addresses one specific question: how to measure the idle and standby consumption of machines by linking it to actual production states (running, waiting, stopped), so you go into the audit with facts rather than estimates.
- A machine that is waiting or stopped still consumes energy.
- Without machine state history, the load curve says little.
- Crossing states and consumption quantifies the base load by waiting reason.
- The energy audit then starts from measured facts.
Energy audits: an obligation that pushes plants to measure
Orki, a French company that helps manufacturers manage their energy consumption and emissions (software platform, dedicated experts, training), published Efficacité énergétique dans l’industrie : obligations 2026 et leviers d’action (in French), written by Gautier Mulak. The article defines industrial energy efficiency, explains that France’s DDADUE law replaced the former size criterion with a consumption criterion (any company exceeding 2.7 GWh per year is now subject to a mandatory energy audit), and details the audit steps, the levers for action and the indicators to track. It sums this up in one sentence: “Sans mesure, pas de pilotage.” (in other words: without measurement, there is no control).
That sentence applies especially to a share of consumption that bills and main meters do not show: the energy used by a machine that is not producing. Furnaces kept at temperature, hydraulic units still running, extraction, cooling, cabinets and peripherals left powered: a machine that is waiting or stopped still consumes. TEEPTRAK has already covered the kWh per part indicator and compressed air consumption during downtime. This article focuses on the idle and standby consumption of machines, and on how to document it for the audit.
Production, idle, standby, off: four states to tell apart
To know what a machine consumes without producing, you first need to know when it is not producing. The table below offers a simple grid. The consumption items listed are common examples, to be checked machine by machine.
| Machine state | What may consume | Question to document for the audit |
|---|---|---|
| Producing | Motors, heating, full process | What is the consumption per good part? |
| Idle (ready, no part) | Heating maintained, hydraulics, extraction, cooling | How many hours per week, and for which waiting reasons? |
| Standby | Electronics, partial temperature holding, peripherals | Is standby programmed, and is it applied? |
| Off (outside production) | Powered cabinets, utilities not shut off | Is there a base load at night and at weekends? |
The difficulty is not measuring energy: a sub-meter or a clamp meter does that. The difficulty is knowing what state the machine was in at every moment. Without that history, the load curve remains just a curve, and you cannot tell what share of consumption actually goes into production.
Measuring idle consumption before the audit, step by step
- Choose the machines to track. Start with the largest known consumers and those that often sit waiting. For example, a press or furnace that regularly waits for material is a good candidate.
- Timestamp machine states. Record production, waiting and stopped periods automatically, with their reasons. Without this, no consumption can be attached to a state.
- Overlay the consumption curve. Collect sub-meter or spot measurement data over the same period, then calculate the average power per state: producing, idle, standby, off.
- Quantify idle hours by reason. Waiting for material, waiting for an operator, end of run and upstream breakdowns do not have the same remedy. The cross-analysis shows which waits cost the most energy.
- Define standby rules. For example: beyond a certain predictable waiting time, the machine switches to standby. The rule must account for the time and energy needed to get back to steady running, and for the quality of the first parts.
- Give the auditor usable data. Hours per state, average power per state, waiting reasons: the energy audit then starts from measured facts, and the proposed actions can be tracked afterwards.
Linking production stops and energy, a double gain
Reducing waits and stops improves OEE. Reducing idle consumption improves energy performance. Yet both projects start from the same data: the history of machine states. A recurring material wait costs production time and energy consumed for nothing. Fixing it improves both indicators at once.
This link also helps with trade-offs. Systematic standby can hurt production if warm-up is long; permanent temperature holding can be expensive if waits are long and frequent. Only measuring the real duration of waits, machine by machine, sets the right threshold. That is exactly the point of Orki’s sentence: without measurement, the decision remains a hunch.
What TEEPTRAK brings to energy audit preparation
TEEPTRAK measures OEE, stops and micro-stops in real time. A module wired into the electrical cabinet and a sensor at the line record each machine’s state automatically, with no connection to the PLC. Installation takes about one hour per machine and OEE is available within 48 hours. The timestamped history of states (producing, waiting, stopped) and their reasons is the basis for attaching the consumption measured by meters to what the machine is actually doing. The energy audit and action plan remain the work of energy specialists; TEEPTRAK provides the machine state measurement that feeds them. The solution is deployed in more than 700 plants in over 30 countries.
Further reading
- Efficacité énergétique dans l’industrie : obligations 2026 et leviers d’action (Orki, in French)
- Energy performance indicator in manufacturing: measuring kWh per part and energy used during downtime
- Compressed air consumption during downtime: matching machine states with utilities
FAQ
What is the difference between idle and standby consumption? When idle, the machine is ready to produce but is not producing: heating, hydraulics and peripherals stay active. In standby, some of these functions are reduced or switched off, at the cost of a warm-up time at restart.
Do you need a meter on every machine to measure idle consumption? Not necessarily at first. A spot measurement campaign on the largest consumers, combined with machine state history, is often enough to quantify the base load and decide where to install permanent meters.
Does putting a machine on standby hurt production? It depends on warm-up time and the quality of the first parts. That is why the standby rule is set from the real duration of waits, measured machine by machine.
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