Energy arrives as one number on the bill and gets paid as one number. Nobody ties it to what it produced.

ABN AMRO warned recently that rising energy pressure is squeezing food manufacturers. Margins are already thin, so every unit of energy matters — but most operations have no idea how much energy each unit of output actually costs. The bill says how much was used. It never says where it went.

That's the real problem. Without tying energy to output, there's no baseline, no per-shift comparison, no way to see that line two runs hot while line three runs fine. The waste hides inside the total, and totals don't get questioned — line items do.

You don't need submeters on everything to start. Take the monthly bill, divide it by units produced, and track that number by week. Then break it down by shift. The difference between your best shift and your worst shift is the size of the opportunity — and it's usually bigger than anyone expects.

The number was always there. It just needed to be divided by something.