International. Adequate energy management is a very relevant factor in the competitiveness of industrial SMEs, so it affects savings, sustainability and differentiation, among other aspects.
From its experience of 25 years working in the field of energy efficiency EDE Ingenieros has synthesized the keys to good energy management, based on the results obtained in its trajectory. The strategy with which this engineering manages to save up to 10% of energy consumption is based primarily on a global approach; in considering energy as an integral dimension in the company that affects all departments, including purchasing, production and maintenance. With this comprehensive vision, energy improvement is addressed as a medium-long term objective, based on the real needs of production processes to propose savings strategies that give results. In this approach, tools such as energy audits acquire their full effectiveness, which allow an analysis of the situation as an integrated part of a comprehensive strategic plan.
For an adequate energy management in EDE Ingenieros four fundamental phases of work are addressed: analyze the processes, measure the consumptions, establish energy distributions and carry out the monitoring and subsequent control. From these points, all the necessary measures can be implemented to properly optimize the systems.
It is a cycle of continuous improvement; a process that has to be active over time to adjust the system to the modifications that occur, channel the deviations that are committed and deepen successively. In this way you can enter to analyze specific elements that in a first vision appear in the second order, but also imply savings. This cyclical analysis is necessary to reach the appropriate conclusions, since in each new energy audit new results come out, there are deviations, there have been changes, other elements arise...
In this process, EDE Ingenieros highlights the importance of industrial SMEs having a person responsible for the energy field. That he understands energy and has the capacity to interact with other factory departments: with maintenance, with engineering when the facilities are made, etc. To promote joint work with a medium-term vision so that the strategies proposed are giving results and achieving important savings.
Among these strategies, EDE Ingenieros points out some very valid ones to improve energy efficiency in short terms, such as optimizing the auxiliary activities or vice-present in the industry. For example, compressed air installations, which are not central elements of production, but it is a technology that spends a lot of energy and is very inefficient. Focusing on optimizing auxiliary equipment can account for 20% of 30% of the energy, which means significant cost savings in a company that consumes a lot.
In addition, they affirm the need to change the usual approach of carrying out energy saving actions only when equipment changes are made. Given the importance of the design of the facilities and the organization of work in a good energy management, it is necessary to take advantage of the change of lines in the companies to address the efficiency because it implies an avoided cost. Once the installation is done it will be much more difficult to carry it out.
Working with these premises and in alliance with its customers EDE Ingenieros achieves significant savings. "If all the savings measures resulting from the analyses we carried out were carried out, we can easily speak of savings of 10% of energy consumption. In some cases up to 15%," says Mariano Sánchez, engineering manager.
As for the work methodology, at EDE Ingenieros they help industrial companies to implement an energy management system tailored to their needs. From companies that want to obtain ISO 50001 certification or those who have already obtained it and need to develop it, to those who want to structure a previous management system. "An energy management system is not a standard procedure, but requires an adaptation according to processes and organizations."
