Tag Archive for: energy efficiency

Efficiency in industrial maintenance

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When we talk about energy efficiency usually we associate the concept to the installation of renewable energy support, replacement of old equipment by more modern ones with higher yields and lower consumption, implementation of energy management systems that allow control consumption and emissions, LED lighting etc.

 

Seldom we think that the mere work of those responsible for industrial maintaining a company can contribute, a lot, to reducing energy consumption while maintaining the same levels of production.

This is not to change equipment or make investments whose cost is usually high and return to medium or long-term, efficiency is applicable in day to day and it is necessary to lead a maintenance management of the installation through small actions involving in short, great results.

 

The secret is to have industrial maintenance with a holistic view, understanding that everything is not always the sum of the parts, understanding that a facility operates as a set of interconnected systems and energy gains and losses in each of the subsystems affect or benefit the rest. The result is exponential and from experience, can reach percentages of reduction in costs surprisingly high and comparable to any measure of replacement of obsolete equipment by more efficient ones, but with a substantially lower cost. We talked about a 25% reduction on average, a decent percentage to be analysed. It is, therefore, important that the owner and the responsible for running the business counts on some specialisation engineering in the field. In this sense it is necessary that engineering has knowledge and experience in facilities management and be able to implement efficiency in such management necessary to achieve the desired results. You must also provide the customer the option of buying your services through a flexible service model and focused on results.

 

Today, it is possible to outsource services with that approach that soon begin to be paid with the result obtained leaving a significant positive difference in several ways: cost reduction in management, workload industrial maintenance costs, energy costs, necessary equipment replacement. In addition, if you have the right support, other more intangible benefits are obtained, but no less important, such as unloading concerns knowing that someone external, impartial and focused on results, ensures the proper functioning of the systems, supporting our internal staff.

Guidelines to save energy this Christmas

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During Christmas holidays, one of the most energy-consuming elements, for everyone, is the lighting of the house.

It is usual to use bright ornaments at home, which often use halogen technology, high drain. The best option is to progressively replacing it by LED technology, which preferably incorporates solar collector to run, so we are eliminating electricity consumption completely. The same happens in residential buildings with landscaped communal areas. However, in apartments we can only use LED decorative lights to save energy.

On the other hand, the most energy-consuming element during the cold months inside a home rarely focuses on lighting. Put the focus on the elements designed to heat the house, water heating, etc. such as air conditioning, the heat, central heating, etc. In that sense, it is advisable to regulate temperatures as the highest consumption occurs when there are large jumps and systems have to work twice as hard to reach the desired temperature at a given time.

  • Set the temperature between 17 and 18 degrees although we are not inside the house.
  • Set the temperature between 21 and 22 degrees when we are inside the house.
  • Set the temperature of the heater thermostat to 50 degrees in air conditioning
  • Close grids of rooms which don’t need to be heated
  • Each degree reduces consumption by 5-8%
  • With programmable thermostats to save heat, you do not need the entire volume of hot water 24h.
  • Take into account the simultaneity of consumption to avoid peak.

Save on the wrong side is to spend more for the same

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In a previous post, we talked about the cost overruns in which we could incur trying to lower the price hiring our energy with a trading company. In this post, we would like to focus on raising consumer’s awareness about the importance to make the right decision when he renews, extends or replaces any system or subsystem or any element which contributes to the consumption of an installation.

SMEs struggle every day against all types of external and internal problems, subsisting in increasingly competitive and aggressive environments, where often the only element of concise comparison is the price. As energy costs have increased exponentially in recent years and is expected to continue to do so despite the steady trend of recent months, it has become one more element to consider. It is necessary that purchasing decisions take into account efficiency criteria when implementing corrective measures as well to obey technical needs, as extensions motivated by an expected production growth. If the businessman only wants to give priority to the “cost” of different offers during the purchase process over the energy consumption of those once implemented he will be mistaken, considering that when turning on the switch of what he has installed, he will have to pay the kWh consumption arising. Neither the installer responsible for the execution, nor the engineer who has designed the project, nor the manufacturer of the equipment that has sold him, will pay for him the increase in the invoice. Everyone has a different role and selection criteria should note that the above is met, but none of them will hold what we consume or pay afterwards per unit of production since only an adviser with engineering and technical advice capabilities can do this.

Applying efficiency criteria in any purchasing decision we will obtain clear advantages:

  • Ensure the return on investment by reducing consumption in the case of renovations or improvement of facilities.
  • We will have a clear forecast of energy consumption that allows us to compare between different alternatives.
  • We will reduce maintenance costs since usually selected equipment based on efficiency criteria includes the entire set of items to install: equipment, design, control elements, etc. Increasing energy efficiency means increasing productivity.
  • For every € invested we will recover a part in every kWh consumed. Therefore it is essential to apply efficiency criteria in investment over one year.

Energy efficiency is not a theoretical concept as many believe, it starts from the time when we have to undertake daily costs to upgrade facilities that use are deteriorating. The sooner we understand it, the sooner we will save energy.

The energy self-consumption: reality in sight

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Over recent years, the term “self-consumption” in the energy sector has become more common in colloquial language, not always in a positive sense and sometimes with scepticism. Successive changes in legislation have led to confusion on the part of businesses and residential users that, either by conviction or by economic interests, were potentially interested. However, today we can say that we have reached the point where an energy production installation is equal to or less expensive than the same energy contracted to the public network. Photovoltaics, as it says Vozpopuli in its post written by Antonio Muñoz Velez,

“has ceased to be a teenager, much less a spoilt child.”

The self-consumption in Spain is finally a reality in sight.

However, some people are sceptical about real energy savings of a photovoltaic installation, or even if the return on investment makes it interesting to consider this technology. It is shown that a facility today can run completely autonomously through the different systems that exist, but it is true that pretending to supply 100% of the energy demand of any facility can still be somewhat expensive and lead to periods of more distended amortisation so users would be willing to assume. So the question must be asked: do we really need to supply 100% of our energy demand? To see a specific case, if your house is in an area of difficult access to public electricity supply you will need to produce the energy it consumes fully your own way, so it will end up producing 100% of what you need to consume. On the contrary, if you do have access to the public network, it would be possible to establish a project of photovoltaic energy consumption by only provides a part of the energy demand. That way you can save a significant amount in the initial project cost and even significantly reduce the return period.

The same would happen in an industry or a services facility. If further installation requires more energy during the day, its consumption occurs primarily during daylight hours, it is much easier to get this cheaper because it does not need to store energy using batteries that considerably increase the project cost as a whole. In fact, as national legislation is today, according to RD900/2015 based on an earlier draft, the known Net balance which in theory allows pouring into the public network surplus energy produced is not allowed in Spain. This is an additional argument when considering how to maximise the energy produced, if we decided on photovoltaics instead of producing surplus and stored in batteries.

Cheap can be expensive, like energy

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The energy market is currently one of the most dynamic. Since its liberalisation in 1997, with the first Aznar’s term in office, it has become a business for many companies that have decided to invest in energy trading, reaching a considerable turnover, taking into account the business life-cycle of the sector since then.

Today there are more than 420 trading companies located throughout the Spanish territory, whose scope varies depending on their size. Only 80 of them operate nationwide. Good judgement when choosing between this wide range is essential, even if hiring energy is a commodity and has a high cost “the price is not everything“.

When we talk about buying and selling energy we refer to its commercialisation. A final consumer does not buy and does certainly not sell. In colloquial term, he hires energy with one or another company. Hiring a fixed price implies generally to guarantee a price for a year. We often receive annual discounts on fixed prices, but to think that a discount on a fixed price necessarily means a lowering of our current costs in the same proportion as implying the discount itself is a mistake: on the one hand, the discount only applies on the unregulated part, the part set by the commercialisation company represents approximately between 25 and 30 percent of the bill; on the other hand, to determine the actual extent of the discount, the rate on which it will be applied should be at most the same rate we have now hired, otherwise, we could be incurring extra costs.

We have also heard about hiring indexed prices, which implies buying the energy matching the market price adding a sales fee charged by the distributor. In this case, we will not have a fixed price during one year, but our price will vary according to market fluctuations. There’s a lot to talk about this and many ways to compare, but no guarantee to have a specific price since we subject it to daily market fluctuations. So for now, if you decide to hire the indexed price we recommend to order a comparison with past prices and simulated bills, ie, asking the vendor or distributor that simulates us our recent bill with prices he would have said applied during the period we choose to compare.

Notwithstanding the above, it is important to note that, as in all sectors, not all existing deals are equally reliable. Biggest traders provide continuity, but not necessarily a low price. However, we can not choose a small one only for bid price, because the business of buying and selling is complex and any problems arising from poor management by who we hired the energy with can bring us indirect problems. It is therefore better to look for a combination of reliability and price, asking for referrals, finding out the history of the company and finding out if in the recent past has incurred problems. CNMC and BOE pages are sources of useful information.

Climaval Eficiencia energética

Climaval loyal to its thematic policy celebrates the IV Edition: Circular Economy and Energy Solutions

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Avaesen remains loyal to its organizing events policy to promote the sustainability activities, energy efficiency and reduction of CO2 emissions. In the last edition, the theme focused on the hotel sector, this year will focus on the industrial sector, also in need of new ideas, towards the implementation of future European standards that seek to promote the implementation of cost saving measures and energy consumption reduction among governments and businesses.

To ensure the interest of all, they have created different programs that cover the most important issues: energy solutions, Circular economy, between social impact and economic profitability, financial instruments and success stories.

Sernoven has been invited to present its innovative consumption and impacts predicting solution for the implementation of energy saving measures, which is aimed at engineering and technical departments in big companies. However, it has preferred to wait to launch a complete module that allows greater integrity.

What is the circular economy?

It is a European initiative that aims to encourage feedback on resources use, reducing materials input and virgin waste production, closing economic and ecological loops or flows of such resources. Resources physical flows analysis comes from the known industrial ecology school of thought. It explains material flows are divided in two types:

1)     Biological nutrients, designed to be re-introduced in the biosphere without incident

2)     Technical nutrients, designed to be moved with high quality in the production system, but without returning to the biosphere.

SMEs must maintain its objective of creating value, implement sustainability policies while maintaining profitability.

The great challenge for companies dedicated to engineering and energy advice is to convince employers of the importance to implement efficiency measures and energy savings, based on its profitability. Most SMEs restrict themself to undertake those short-term impact measures, applying a corrective policy to the production process. There are several reasons that lead entrepreneurs to manage that way, and none of them is exempt from justification. However, despite the uncertainties of future justify any stagnation, it is necessary to realize that the perpetuation of a company goes through applying the balance between short-term impact measures and long-term impact. Nowadays any efficiency measure well calculated generates a guaranteed return as in the following success stories

Sernoven App eficiencia energética Valencia Energy

Sernoven developed an innovative system to predict energy results

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SERNOVEN will put on the market a self-development application and result of the experience accumulated over the years. With this app we aim to make more comfortable and agile the energy management process for engineering companies which provide its services to business and would like to direct it as a technical support and counsel towards energy cost reduction and implementation of cost saving measures. It will also help maintenance technicians with the daily work giving them a new support.

The developed tool allows modeling the pattern of energy consumption of an installation within the tertiary or industrial sector without having to monitor. The application can predict with a high degree of certainty energy consumption and cost associated faced with any change of used variables of the application. Thus, we give to the owner and professionals who ensure the proper functioning of the installation a very powerful tool to simulate the impact of any action or modification of the original model, with the purpose to contrast potential savings in the installation. Furthermore, among others, let make decisions in advance considering the behavior of electricity markets improving energy management.

In addition, the tool let the user to create personalized rates with which, by introducing contract conditions, you will be able to make a comparison of costs for different consumption rates. In this way, the user can determine if the current rate is the most suitable for the installation.

This tool will be connected to the intra-daily market price data for accurate calculations. In later versions, development planning plans to launch an alerts module based on weather forecasts, so that if an engineering services company provides support to customers from different locations, they will be able to give instructions for a more accurate management taking advantage of the conditions and minimizing the impact of ambient temperature changes. This is useful to customize management in cases of multiple supply points scattered throughout the national territory.

With all of the above, it significantly reduces the uncertainty facing making a decision with this tool which can simulate in advance the impact of potential cost-saving measures and energy management, facilitating the work of Management. Once again, the R&D department of Sernoven gets bring value to its customers and be in the forefront of the energy efficiency sector.

Energy efficiency sernoven-eficiencia-energetica-centros-deportivos-2 Energy efficiency

Sernoven, cornerstone for sports centers energy efficiency

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As a result of the experience accumulated on energy efficiency over 5 years, Sernoven has achieved the following excellent results in sports centers energy optimization:

  • Continuous improvement in the performance of Technical and Energy Consulting Service provided for Sports Centers; energy monitoring, changing usage habits, technical management of facilities optimization, maintenance facilities providing optimization, technical adequacy of obsolete or poorly maintained facilities, etc.
  • Through detailed analysis of telemetry data provided by each of the main equipment responsible of the sports facilities consumption, we have achieved to prioritize, according to the guideline customer, measures with less impact on investment and lower amount of savings over those of greater impact on investment and greater amount or vice versa. We reduce up to 40% in electricity bills and as much in thermal bills (gas, oil, etc.) by consulting detail, without necessarily having to take major investments or changes. It should be remembered that funding is provided against cost savings, however small may be the investment.
  • To acquire a deep understanding of the financing models that fit the reality of the sector that has made possible the implementation of energy efficiency measures that require a major investment.
  • Continually increase CUSTOMERS portfolio in this Sector.

sernoven-eficiencia-energetica-centros-deportivos

 

Some important milestones:

  1. Air/water cooler replacement project with a hight efficiency cooler with heat recovery for preheating the ACS (hot water for sanitary uses) and semi-Olympic pool water. ESEER> 5 (cooling and thermal energy)

Investment = 241,000 €

Savings = 50,000 € / year

PRS = 4,8 years

  1. ACS production system replacement project of electrical resistance by high efficiency heat pumps (COP> 4)

Investment = 105,000 €

Savings = 24,000 € / year

PRS = 4.3 years

  1. Implementation of remote monitoring system (TELEMETRY) of electrical energy and natural gas consumption for trading variables and consumption habits optimization.
  2. Adequacy of variables instructions and facilities operation (ACS accumulation temperature, flow pumps, pools seasonal temperature, etc.) to optimize consumption.

Investment = 0€

Savings = 15,000 € / year

From SERNOVEN we offer all our knowledge and experience to improve the management of their facilities, to reduce energy costs and improve service quality to its users.

Sernoven provides service throughout August

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Take advantage of the Sernoven services this summer

During the month of August Sernoven does not close for holidays, but customer service timetable will change. From day 1st to 19th of August, you can contact us between 8:30 and 14:00.
We take this opportunity to wish you a happy summer.

sernoven-boe-eficiencia-energetica-valencia-paterna tivo Muestra información sobre la palabra clave objetivo Energy Efficiency

Order in Council 56/2016 which transposes Directive on Energy Efficiency in Spain is published

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  • Spanish companies (except SMEs) will have nine months to perform energy audits and implement an energy management system in its facilities

On 12th of February 2016, the Council of Ministers approved the text which transposes the Directive 2012/27 / EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25th of October 2012 about energy efficiency. It establishes the regulatory framework of energy efficiency in Spain with regard to energy audits, accreditation of services providers and energy auditors, and promotion of energy efficiency.

After two drafts and a plebiscite, after more than a year and a half since the deadline for transposition of the Directive 2012/27 / EU and disciplinary proceedings by the European Commission last October, the publication of this Order is an essential step for Spain to reach the target of 20 percent energy savings by 2020. The purpose of this directive is to promote the use of renewable energy and implement effective measures of energy efficiency in the residential, tertiary, transport and industry sectors.

According to the Article 8 of the Directive, all companies, except SMEs, regardless of sector of activity, are required to pass a least one energy audit every four years or to implement an energy or environmental management system -certified by an independent organism in accordance with European or International Standards-, if Member States ensure that the management system concerned includes an energy audit carried out according to minimum criteria to ensure their effectiveness and that the Directive includes in Annex VI.