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We’re in the business of keeping you in business.

You make stuff. We help you make stuff happen.

Every hour of every day, production plants make stuff and get it out the door. Many of them are our customers. They depend on our experience as industrial electricians to maintain the complex electrical systems that keep their machines working. It’s our commitment to our customers that lets them make good on their commitments to theirs. 

When you have an electrical problem that shuts down production, you can’t just wait around hoping for a return call from an electrical contractor who’s not sure how to fix it and doesn’t have anyone to send over anyway. When everything’s stopped, the only thing going out the door is money. 

We take care of our customers’ production facilities and industrial plants twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year. At 401 Electric, when our customers are down, we’re on the way.

Industrial electrical services from experts in industrial electricity

Electricity. Your facility depends on it. You know your business. It’s our business to know everything about the industrial power distribution system that keeps it running. 

When it comes to fixing the power distribution equipment that your facility has outgrown, it’s not only a question of new hardware. You need an electrical services company with the experience and knowledge to design and install the custom system that takes advantage of the advancements in power technology available to modern industrial plants. 

At 401 Electric, we have a proven track record of keeping the lights on and the lines moving at plants with exacting operational, environmental and safety procedures, including facilities processing food, developing biotechnology products, manufacturing chemicals, and creating health and personal care products that people use every day. 

Whether it’s a new production line or an existing one that must be relocated or modified to integrate new equipment, we can advise you on the best way to power it, so it satisfies operational objectives and delivers optimal energy performance. If you like our advice, then we’ll design the solution and get to work installing it. If a new custom control panel is part of the mix, then we can redesign the one you have or build a new one. 

And it’s not just electricity that keeps your machines working. Real-time information and data sharing on the plant floor is critical to real-time production decisions and that takes best-in-class physical network infrastructure. Whether it’s copper or fibre optic, we install structured cabling solutions in plants designed to meet the demanding requirements of production environments.

Poor quality electricity costs more than you think

Electricity is a major expense for industrial facilities. Plant managers know the total direct cost of the electricity because they see it on their utility bills. But what about the indirect costs caused by poor power quality? Lost work when a machine is down, wasted or unusable production, equipment malfunction or even premature failure? What does that cost the business? We have the experience and tools to identify the power quality issues that are hurting your bottom line. More importantly, we can show you how they can be fixed.

Solutions may involve installing uninterruptible power supplies (UPS). Or maybe even an integrated onsite generation system that improves power quality while it ensures emergency power will be there for critical infrastructure when there is a utility outage.

warehouse

The costs of not submetering are anyone’s guess

If you don’t have a submetering strategy at your facility, then you don’t really know the costs of not having one. Neither do we. That’s because without submeters it’s difficult to know what that pump really costs to operate. And the costs of lost production and missed deliveries and customer inconvenience or hardship if it stops working? That’s anyone’s guess.

A submeter would tell you that a pump is beginning to use incrementally more power which may indicate it’s about to fail. We think production facilities operate better when electricity to critical systems used in real time is tracked in real time. That’s what submetering can do for your plant.
Managers of industrial operations are looking for better ways to monitor the electricity their facilities use. They particularly want to know where it’s being wasted because that’s just an expense that hurts profitability. With individual submeters installed to track power consumption of specific machines and industrial processes, the costs of electricity become visible.

And it’s not just production equipment that can be monitored. For a fuller picture of a facility’s electricity consumption, then submetering systems can track lighting, HVAC, electric heat and other critical infrastructure. Data can be reported in online customizable energy management control panels. You gain instant insight into where electricity is used and where it’s being lost. What energy efficiency projects will yield the greatest benefits in savings? Real-time energy consumption data will point you in the right direction.

If a motor is suddenly drawing more electricity than it should, that might be an alert of a failure about to happen. With submetering, an alarm can be triggered to tell managers that critical infrastructure is at risk. And you can plan to do something about it before it happens.

robotic-arm-factory

Production lines and bottom lines benefit from energy efficiency

If you’re a plant manager who wants more from your expenditures on energy—more cost reductions, more performance from the electricity powering production—then we should talk. At 401 Electric, our staff know their way around production facilities. Walk us around yours and we’ll show you how all that power can be put to better use.

Wondering what electricity or plant retrofit projects and upgrades will produce the highest return? We have the audit tools and the understanding to help you with answers. Our customers depend on us to evaluate industry-leading energy technologies and assist them in determining how those solutions will work in their facilities to deliver measurable and sustainable energy improvements and savings.

We are one of the few electrical contractors with the resources to identify and manage the leading incentive programs that assist companies with funding to support energy efficiency upgrades in equipment and operations. Can you do better as a Class A consumer? Ontario has some of the highest industrial electricity costs in North America. Understanding the province’s Industrial Conservation Initiative (ICI) and lowering your electricity usage in the top five “peak” hours each year can save you thousands of dollars annually. We have ideas on how to make the energy improvements that generate savings along with improvements in power supply.

Infrared thermography sees problems before they’re problems

It’s a lot easier to fix an electrical failure when you see it before it happens. With infrared thermography, we identify the heat building up around key components that are under stress—and are likely to fail—in your plant’s electrical system. To the naked eye and most other diagnostic tools, that critical equipment appears to be functioning normally. But to our licensed and experienced electrical thermographers, an anomalous heat signature is a red flag. We analyze what we find and provide you with a detailed report identifying the electrical risks to your facility and what we can do to address them. 

With the heads up, your team avoids the headaches of a critical piece of manufacturing equipment suddenly out of service. You can plan to do something about it when it doesn’t shut down production or at least keeps downtime to a minimum. A scheduled repair coordinated to avoid or minimize plant disruptions is likely to cost a fraction of the unanticipated losses when that main electrical panel breaks down in the middle of the night requiring emergency service, a backup generator that isn’t readily available and new hardware that hasn’t been ordered, all while production is at full stop. 

Sometimes hidden hazards in your electrical system present another catastrophic risk: fire. More insurance companies are considering infrared thermography electrical inspections as a factor in preferential insurance premiums. 

We can’t predict the future but we’re pretty good at predicting if there’s an electrical failure in yours. LEARN MORE!

Take charge of your electric fleet

We think commercial EVs should be out working not waiting around to get charged. They should be doing the heavy work of delivering goods on time and getting people to where they need to be. That takes a lot of power. At 401 Electric, we have the expertise to make sure your EVs are on the job not hanging around for a charge. 

The key is making sure there is enough power at your facility to support your EV fleet. A well-designed charging infrastructure, integrated into your facility’s overall power requirements, can save thousands of dollars in ongoing electricity and demand charges. 

For Class A electricity consumers there are impacts on peak consumption. But the case for preparing for the electrification of transportation is strong. Ask us to take charge of your switch to EVs and we’ll design and install the cost-effective and sophisticated charging infrastructure that will keep your vehicles on the road not plugged in around back. LEARN MORE!