Four international giants – ABB, Eaton, Emerson, Valmet – and local experts, together with ANRE vice-president Zoltan Nagy-Bege, presented examples of good practices and scenarios on the future of energy efficiency in Romania. More than 150 participants were present at the Parliament Palace, where energynomics.ro and DK Expo organized this year’s 5th event in the Energy Efficiency series: “Energy Efficiency – Good Practices and Future Scenarios” within our national campaign “Energy efficiency for big results”.

The ANRE representative opened the conference presenting two of the relevant directions of the Authority from the perspective of energy efficiency: accelerating the integration of renewable energies into the national energy mix and reducing energy poverty. Zoltan Nagy-Bege insisted on the need for better communication, mainly towards public administrations and end-consumers, on the opportunities that come with actions for improved energy efficiency. “Town halls need to understand that developing local energy efficiency reports helps them identify the problems they have and the ways they can work effectively,” said Zoltan Nagy-Bege.

The ANRE official announced the resumption of talks with the parties involved in an ESCO framework contract, already used by industrial agents, but hardly at all by public authorities. “We have established a working group to meet weekly to propose this document,” said Zoltan Nagy-Bege. “The Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Development, as well as representatives of the big companies in Amcham are also involved. We are discussing this document article in order to identify the legislative barriers to introducing these contracts that can help overcome budget limits at municipal level.”

Competitiveness with maximum efficient UPS

With a history of more than 185 years, the companies that make up the Eaton Group provide more energy-efficient, cost-effective and secure energy management technologies”, said Eaton Electric Country Manager, Gabriel Tache. Tache exposed four of the main action areas of the moment:

• Transport – IntelliConnect solution improves the fleets running time
• Machine tools – integrated electro-hydraulic solutions improve energy consumption
• Micro-networks – fast power restauration, low energy costs
• Stadium lighting – LEDs for improved efficiency, comfort and safety both at home and at work

Gabriel Tache mentioned a concrete example, the energy efficiency achieved with Eaton’s UPSs (VMMS Efficiency and ESS Efficiency) and the prospect of UPSs providing the frequency reserve with a considerable impact on the competitiveness of the systems in which they are installed. “Reserves are needed to supplement mandatory frequency regulation to correct deviations in grid frequency and supply-demand balance caused by forecast inaccuracy and faults”, said Gabriel Tache. Among future scenarios and trends identified by Eaton, Gabriel Tache also mentioned the need for increased energy storage for better integration of renewable energies and reduced CO2 emissions. In line with the European directives in the field, Eaton is also involved in other product groups, such as electric motors, pumps and fans.

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Digital transformation becomes essential in value creation

In his speech, Sebastian Ferecuş, General Manager of South East Europe for Emerson Automation Solutions, presented the company portfolio of automation products and services, stressing that “the next era of value creation will be enabled by digital transformation”.

Emerson’s representative presented the essential competencies of digital transformation: automated workflow, decision support, workforce upskilling, mobility and change management. Adopting Best-In-Class behaviors, using the “Operational Certainty” approach and IIoT technologies, will help companies to reach top quartile performances in four areas quantified by them:

• Safety – 3x fewer recordables and process incidents
• Production – 20% lower operating costs and 10% higher utilization rate
• Reliability – 4% higher availability (15 more days per year), and half the maintenance costs
• Emissions – 30% lower emissions and 30% less energy use

“Emerson’s PlantWeb digital eco-system enables top quartile performance with the industry’s broadest integrated portfolio of IIoT solutions”, said Sebastian Ferecuş.

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Valmet DNA – automation for effective operation

Christian Pescher, Sales Manager EPS (Energy and process systems), Automation Business Line, Austria/CEE Valmet GesmbH presented the energy efficiency solutions through automation from a 220 years old industrial group with over 12,000 employees worldwide. Valmet DNA is the name of the platform in which the group integrates all automation in energy (equipment, services, etc.), a user interface for effective operation included.

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Valmet is active in Romania through Control Point (Brașov), whose general manager, Romulus Berdei, has referred to some of their areas of interest in the present. “The equipment installed by the Valmet group two or three decades ago is still in operation in Romania, and we provide maintenance or audit services for some of them”, said Romulus Berdei. “At European level, for many years, we have been partners with Valmet in numerous projects, mainly in the biogas sector. We expect this kind of projects – waste to power, biomass, biogas – to start appearing in Romania once the legislative framework is clarified”, said the general manager of Control Point.

ABB – Pioneering in e-Mobility

Constantin Ichimoaei, executive manager with ABB Romania, addressed the e-mobility topic, insisting on the opportunities and challenges introduced by electric vehicles. “ABB has been and remains a pioneer in identifying and applying the evolutionary / revolutionary ideas we need today,” said the ABB representative. He presented the main factors that are already active in the power systems today and will influence the evolution of the grids in the future:

• full scale deployment of renewables across all regions
• massive introduction of grid connected Electrical Vehicles
• power exchange with related data transfer («Internet of Energy»)
• artificial Intelligence enabling complex autonomous processes

DOWNLOAD THE PRESENTATION OF CONSTANTIN ICHIMOAEI

In the rather short history of charging equipment for e-vehicles, ABB has introduced plenty of firsts and contributed to an evolution which means higher charging power and shorter charging time. “The best example is our recently launched Terra High Power charger operating at up to 350 kilowatts for adding up to 200 kilometers of range to an electric vehicle in just 8 minutes,” said Constantin Ichimoaei. These technological advances, along with those reported by battery makers, allow the near future car models to get bigger and bigger; the first electric SUVs are already available and many more models will be launched over the next three years.

By cutting losses, we can cover estimated consumption growth

The intervention of Ștefan Opriș, marketing manager at Lisscom Brasov, was a plea for a change of perspective regarding the optimal response to the identified trends in the energy field. More specifically, in Romania, as well as globally, we anticipate that greater urbanization will be accompanied by increased energy consumption. Unlike the developed countries in Europe, at national level there is a potential of about 40% reduction in consumption by means of efficiency alone. “Instead of investing in increasing generation capacities, for covering future consumption growth, we can invest a lot less in increasing energy efficiency”, suggests Stefan Opriș.

DOWNLOAD THE PRESENTATION OF ȘTEFAN OPRIȘ

In Lisscom’s case as well, the approach involves monitoring, automation and control solutions that have already proven their viability in the project completed in Cluj-Napoca. “Our example of good energy efficiency practices refers to complete and comprehensive monitoring of thermal installations in 73 public buildings; this have shown us that we can reduce by over 30% the energy-related and facility management costs, emphasized Opriș.

Collaboration for quality standards

Certification obligations in respect with energy efficiency require monitoring, auditing and then implementing concrete measures, some of the participants in the discussion noted. “The standards do not appear out of nowhere, but they are elaborated by experts and they are updated periodically,” explained Dr. Eng. Doina Dragomir, leading standardization expert within the Association of Standardization in Romania – ASRO.

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Doina Dragomir pleaded for the participation of specialist from the equipment manufacturers and energy companies, as members of the Romanian technical committees, for the drafting of national, European and international standards. “Applying standards ensures the sustainability of infrastructures,” said Doina Dragomir, “and designating Romanian experts in the working groups of the European and international technical committees to develop standards of interest is a must.”

The event was organized by energynomics.ro and DK Expo, with the support of our partners: ABB România, Control Point powered by Valmet, Dynoteq Technology, Eaton România, Emerson, Lisscom Brașov.

Following the success of the 2017 initiative, energynomics.ro unrolls its second media campaign for energy efficiency across the country! The campaign will run in the Romanian language, under the title  “Eficiență energetică pentru rezultate care contează“ – („Energy Efficiency for Big Results”) – a name which aligns concepts, information and solutions aimed to promote energy efficiency among the targeted audiences..

This is a communication campaign aimed at informing and educating the decision makers in the Romanian public authorities and companies – from Start-Ups and SMEs to the largest enterprises. The assigned objective is to positively influence their attitudes and behavior regarding the need for and the benefits of implementing in their organizations the energy audits and the needed actions and technologies for increased energy efficiency.

Participation

Access to the conference is open to all professionals in the Romanian energy industry and related sectors, based on the nominal confirmation from energynomics.ro. You are welcomed to write us at office [at] energynomics.ro and ask for an invitation!

Between April and June 2017 we scheduled three conferences aimed to highlight the need for and the benefits of implementing energy audits, with examples of actions and technologies for increased energy efficiency.

Conferences scheduled in 2018 in the Communication Campaign “Energy Efficiency for big results”

• March 14, Iaşi – Efficiency through Automation and Energy Storage Follow-Up article
• April 26, Cluj-Napoca – Optimized energy consumption (storage, monitoring, industrial design) Follow-Up article
• May 22, Timișoara – Industrial automation and energy storage for energy efficiency Follow-Up article
• July 4, Constanța – Innovation and proven solutions for energy efficiency Follow-Up article
• October 17, Craiova
• November 14, Oradea

Themes

• Public Sector – Exemplary role of public bodies’ buildings and purchasing by public bodies
• Metering and Billing – Operational, as well as potential specific technical topics
• Financing – The conditions required for the successful establishment of financing facilities
• Energy Services – Provisions to stimulate the development of the energy services market; energy storage; energy balancing; energy flexibility
• Consumer Information – Communication is a vital aspect of promoting energy efficiency
• CHP and Heating / Cooling – Assessment for the potential application of high-efficiency CHP and DH
• Obligation Schemes, Audits and Monitoring – Options for implementation and issues related to monitoring
• National Energy Efficiency Action Plans