A large bank (BCR), experts and technology providers (UMEB and Safetech) and representatives of the regulatory body (ANRE) came to the Energy Breakfast Club with clarifications, proposals for actions and concrete examples to highlight new stimuli that help to increase energy efficiency and safety in all areas of industrial activity. The variations in the energy price, together with the applicable European norms mandatory for Romania also, further boosts the interest for energy efficiency and safety.
The 8th edition of Energy Breakfast Club this year was opened by Mirela Pleşca, Head of Cooperation and Programs for Energy Efficiency in the ANRE’s Department of Energy Efficiency. She stated by presenting the situation at the macro level. “Romania has good results in the field of national greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, energy efficiency,” the ANRE official quoted Maros Sefcovic, vice-president of the European Commission for Energy Union. Over 40 experts and decision makers participated in the event organized by energynomics.ro, with the support of ANRE, Safetech, UMEB, BCR.
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Mirela Plesca outlined the legislative priorities of the European Council and of the European Parliament in 2017, as well as the relevant national legislation in regards to energy efficiency. One of the novelties brought to attention was ANRE Decision 860 of this year on the approval of models for the annual energy consumption declaration and the energy consumer questionnaire for the energy consumer.
“The ANRE Integrated Information System (MIS) software platform has been expanded through the monitoring component for energy consumers and has resulted in the need for the economic operators to also complete this online reporting,” Plesca stressed. The ANRE official also referred to energy policy measures to support the development of ESCO energy service companies: “At the request of the Member States, Eurostat worked in collaboration with the national statistical institutes to reflect the most appropriate way to register EPC accounts in government accounts “. The result was the guidance note published on the ANRE website.
UMEB: There is room for increasing the energy performance in electric motors
Vlad Vasiliu, general manager of UMEB Elektromotoren, presented the portfolio of the electric motor factory, pointing out that UMEB is one of the few manufacturers of ATEX electric motors in Central and Eastern Europe.
The range of engines produced by UMEB is extremely wide: 16 sizes, ranging from less than one kW to 400 kW, said Vasiliu. “Our main focus is on explosion proof motors and on engines designed to operate safely in potentially explosive areas. China, which is a world leader in this field as well as in so many others, has over 300 electric motor factories, of which only three produce engines for potentially explosive environments. From this point of view, Romania can proudly stand next to the very few countries producing this kind of motors”, explained the General Manager of UMEB.
DOWNLOAD THE PRESENTATION OF VLAD VASILIU
Vasiliu added that UMEB products are already present in the entire energy industry in Romania – mining, oil and gas, and the nuclear reactors at Cernavoda, but also in 48 states on all continents.
Since Tesla, electric motors have not evolved, Vlad Vasiliu said, except for their form and efficiencies. “The production of electric motors is regulated very strongly, and today the UMEB product range is certified to IE2 level, a high level of efficiency. From January 2018 we will certify our entire range in the IE3 standard, with the possibility to advance to IE4 and IE5. For these, we are talking about other constructive forms, not anymore induction motors with rotor-stator, but permanent magnet motors”, Vlad Vasiliu explained.
Safetech solutions for security of SCADA
Mihai Răuţă, Senior Information Security Consultant at Safetech Innovations talked mainly about the security issues that the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems are facing. They are as vulnerable as any other IT system, but they have a very wide impact when a cyber attack succeeds: interruption of electricity distribution, water pollution or floods, blocking the transport systems or large-scale disasters at production lines..
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In their early days, the monitoring and control equipments used in the ICS systems were exchanging information in analogous or serial manner, they did not communicate with the internet and they were safe because the access to them was (could have been) severely restricted. “When the specific SCADA protocols (ModBus, DNP3 type) were tuned to IP protocols, these devices became accessible via the internet and thus became very vulnerable”, warned Mihai Răuţă.
Moving on to the security solutions, the Safetech representative mentioned two methods: securing all access points and creating more layers of security (defense in-depth), suitable for the corporate area, respectively specialized equipment and technologies for better reaction to the needs in the production area. “There are protection solutions that monitor the traffic in the SCADA systems, and that alert the of administrators the industrial networks, when security or operational incidents occur, so that any deviation from normal functioning of the production infrastructure is identified in time”, explained Mihai Răuţă, who said that discussions with critical energy infrastructure operators are already taking place in order to raise awareness of the risks: “we can implement security solutions to demonstrate how such vulnerabilities of the industrial systems can be mitigated, and the decision is now at company level”.
BCR constantly invests in reducing its energy footprint
Mihăiţă Olaru, Coordinator of the Real Estate Property Management Department within BCR, spoke about the energy footprint the banking group has in Romania: 536 locations throughout the country, 93 buildings of over 1,000 sqm and 2 buildings of over 10,000 sqm. “In total, BCR consumed 31 GWh (electricity) and 45 GWh (natural gas) in 2016, down by 6% and respectively 5% in 2015, as a result of the energy efficiency measures applied.
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This year, BCR replaced 115 boilers in order to increase efficiency and introduced condensing boilers. Also, 29 facades of buildings were rebuilt based on thermosystems, and 23 locations were equipped with new inverter-type air conditioning systems. “In all investment projects and annual maintenance of lighting we have replaced the incandescent systems with LED lighting,” added Mihăiţă Olaru.
Investments to increase energy efficiency will continue in the years to come, when the BCR representative expects that consumption reductions to reach more than 10% yby, in both electricity and natural gas.
Over 40 representatives from #better, AFEER, ANRE, BCR, BOX2M, Bteam, CE Oltenia, CONPET, Control-Point, EFdeN, Electrica Furnizare, Energy Investment Policy , Greencells CEE, Hunt Oil, Kerui, Moneycorp, Orient 9, Raiffeisen Bank, REBU, Regus, RRA, Safetech, TEB Energy Business, UMEB, WeTranslate Complete Solutions attended the presentations and participated in discussions.
Media partners for the event were Radio România Actualități, Klarmedia.
Participation
This year, energynomics.ro aims to organize at least 10 Energy Breakfast Club meetings. The schedule and the proposed themes for 2017 are available in the Energy Breakfast Club dedicated page.