On April 28, Energynomics continued the series of meetings dedicated to energy efficiency in 2020 with an online video conference focusing on digitization and energy efficiency solutions for industry in the Dobrogea area. For the third year in a row, the mayor of Constanța and the executive director of the Constanța Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Navigation and Agriculture participated, together with Energynomics partners: MET Romania Energy, Kawasaki Gas Turbine Europe GmbH and Photon Energy. The conference was broadcast live online and gathered about 800 viewers.
Constanța made feasibility studies to attract European funds
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed priorities, said Decebal Făgădău, but the issue city heating stays very high on the agenda of Constanța City Hall. “Unfortunately, not many steps have been taken compared to a year ago, because Romania, in an election year, is somewhat blocked,” he began abruptly.
“We preferred to do something that we also announced at an Energynomics conference. […] We preferred to do feasibility studies to attract European funds, and now Constanța is ready to attract funds in order to resize, modernize and digitalize the public district heating network”, said Decebal Făgădău. “Together with Radet, we had to repair the pipes, including the overhead pipes. We replaced the classic insulation with a special paint, using a Romanian product, produced by Termotop. This is a proof that in Romania we still have specialists and solutions”, said the mayor, adding: “we need modern equipment”.
Drought and no tourism are the main problems
“As in the rest of the country, many companies have slowed down their activity; however, large enterprises are working, even though at slowed down pace”, said Ion Dănuț Jugănaru, General Manager – Constanța Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Navigation and Agriculture. “At present, the most affected field is agriculture. We have a deep, extreme drought, with large areas not irrigated at all, so we are worried about the next harvest”. Another big problem is in tourism. “Nothing is clear. We came with some solutions so that we could comply with all the prevention rules, while also letting tourism work… A lot of work has being done, investors have taken bank loans, and now they should make some money in order to make payments, but they can’t!”
“To our disappointment, the negotiations for the construction of Reactors 3 and 4 have been delayed a lot… As we can’t do the work alone, I wonder if we couldn’t find other partners around the world. In very short time, the reactor 1 is going to retire. A closed reactor means a lot, especially from the Green Deal perspective. We have gas resources in the Black Sea, and we ought to fully benefit from them”, said the executive director of CCINA.
After the crisis, automation and digitization will play a key role
The current context generated by the coronavirus crisis will change a lot of things, said Bogdan Cornigeanu, COO MET Romania Energy. “There will be an economic crisis, it remains to be seen how deep it will be; I hope it will be as light as possible, but many things will change: automation and digitalization will grow more and more, the digitalization revolution will grow and will most likely cover areas and sectors that were previously slower in adopting new digital technologies. It is certain that the future can only be focused on automation and increased attention to human health.”
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From the perspective of digitalization, the energy sector has adopted digital technologies from an early age, but the novelty of the moment is connectivity – connecting all information and sensors in the network, rapid processing and analysis of this information and the ability to make decisions based on such analysis.
MET Romania is among the top five suppliers in Romania, and the third most important player on the balancing market. “Through partners we also offer consulting services in the area of energy auditing”, said Cornigeanu, presenting the company’s solutions.
Efficient cogeneration from Kawasaki
Strongly involved in the industrial sector, the Kawasaki group comes not only with equipment and expertise, but it can also obtain financing from Japanese banks and specialized institutions, said Cristian Athanasovici, Business Development Manager, Kawasaki Gas Turbine Europe.
“Kawasaki has developed production of high-speed trains and aircraft, and we currently have a division of equipment and solutions for energy production, along with a division of industrial robots. The share of energy systems and solutions represents about 18% of our turnover, globally. We deal with the production of energy equipment, gas turbines and internal combustion engines and we have solutions to cover a very wide range from the perspective of energy produced – from 1.7 MWe to 100 MWe”, he said.
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“Every time we have to start from an analysis of heat and electricity consumption. After the analysis of the hourly variation curves, they will be transformed into an analysis of the optimal values for which the cogeneration station can be dimensioned, depending on the demand, consumption and simultaneous consumption. These values, depending on the type of energy required and the strategy of each company, are analyzed, after which the optimal cogeneration solution is drawn”, he explained.
European legislation will increase investment in renewables
With the adoption of Regulation 943 and the new European provisions among which the use of bilateral contracts (PPA – power purchase agreements), investors’ appetite for new long-term projects in Romania in the solar field will increase, says Lauru Bădiță, Country Manager Romania, Photon Energy.
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Photon Energy is a company registered in the Netherlands, but the largest of its offices is in Prague. The company has 120 employees and operates in the field of development, construction and operation of photovoltaic parks, globally, in Europe, Australia and Latin America. Currently, the company offers in Romania only operation and maintenance services, but the next step is to develop complex projects.
“We are expanding in Eastern Europe. If in Hungary we rely on fixed tariffs, in Romania we will use bilateral contracts – the so-called PPAs”, he added, presenting the company’s solutions, in the field of monitoring solar parks and water treatment, too.
The conference “Digitization & Energy efficiency – Verified Approaches, Credible Partners” was organized by Energynomics with the support of our partners: Kawasaki Gas Turbine Europe GmbH, MET România Energy, Klarwin.
Almost 150 people from organizations like Alro, CELCO SA, COGEN România, EDPR România, Energo ESCO, Hidroelectrica SA, Klarwin, Liberty Galati, Metaplast, Metka, Monsson Trading, RADET Constanta, Repom, Schneider Electric, Siemens SRL, Tractebel Engineering have registered in the MyConnector platform for having the possibility to address questions to the speakers.
About the campaign
Energynomics organizes, in 2020, the fourth edition of its successful communication campaign for energy efficiency “Digitization & Energy efficiency in industry”, run in Romanian, and 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 first two campaigns took place during the years 2017, 2018 and 2019.