The conference “Efficiency through Automation and Energy Storage”, organized by energynomics.ro on Wednesday March 14, in Iași, was the first event in this year’s Communication Campaign “Energy Efficiency for big results”.. Over 50 experts in Iași have participate at the debates provoked by six top speakers, representatives of City Hall of Iași, MET România Energy, Tractebel Engineering, ANRE, ABB România, ENEVO Group and Stratum Enclosures.
Radu Botez, Deputy Mayor of Iasi, referred to the priorities of the municipality regarding actions to increase energy efficiency in public services – lighting, heating, and transportation. “We will start with the schools, where we have two projects to improve energy efficiency,” Radu Botez said.
Having systems that lead to energy efficiency is not expensive at all
Andrei Bucur, Business Development Manager at MET Romania Energy presented the smart residential area of Popasului Residence, in Northern Bucharest, each house was equipped with photovoltaic panels and smart home system, meant to ease the life of the user and at the same time to improve the energy consumption. “Photovoltaic panels come with a significant contribution to the heating of the house and a low cost in the utilities bill,” explained Andrei Bucur, who continued: “The smart house means more than automation and remote control of the artificial lighting, the air conditioning system or draperies”. In the case study presented, MET designed and implemented a connection between the heating system and the photovoltaic panels, so that in winter, the heating system starts on air conditioning and heats the building until the batteries are consumed. From that point on, the system shuts down the power supply and starts the system on natural gas, which is cheaper than electricity, at the moment.
Such an investment is less than 10% of the initial cost of building a new house, and the systems presented can also be used in existing buildings as their installation is minimally invasive, said Andrei Bucur.
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With regard to energy storage, it is worth highlighting that technological solutions are being developed not only abroad. There are companies that produce here in Romania power generation and storage systems for energy. “Not only do others have access to such technologies, not just others have ideas and make investments in this sector,” insisted Andrei Bucur as an introduction to the Stratum Enclosures representative.
Fully off-grid e-cars charging stations
Bogdan Cristian Cojocaru, Business Development Manager at Stratum Enclosures, presented the customized solutions the company can offer to its customers.
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“We are a T-ESCO, that is, an ESCO telecom, because we produce energy in SLA – service-level agreement. In the telecom sector, the SLA reaches 99,998%, that is, a 10-minute downtime per year”, Bogdan Cristian Cojocaru explained. Generally, Stratum Enclosures uses renewable energy (solar, photovoltaic panels) and DC generators as a backup system. The systems are produced at the Bucharest plant and 99% of the production goes to export.
One of the solutions featured by the Stratum Enclosures representative is a charging station for electric cars that can operate completely autonomously off the grid, eliminating the financial and bureaucratic costs for connections, but also the direct impact on the national energy system. “A complete system – which allows two simultaneous loads, with photovoltaic panels, batteries and a back-up generator – costs 11,000 euros. If you give up the engine and use the grid as a back-up, it will come 2,000 euros cheaper”, Cojocaru said.
The GEFF initiative – a completely non-bureaucratic system for the final consumer
Mark Velody, Project Manager – EBRD GEFF Romania / Tractebel Engineering has presented the latest EBRD financing initiative for energy efficiency in Romania. “What we are proposing is to turn an idea into an actual investment that results in increased energy efficiency, in a simple and bureaucratic way,” Mark Velody stressed.
Crafted for the residential sector, the initiative provided 100 million euros through two commercial banks (Banca Transilvania and Unicredit), with the technical support from Tractebel Engineerig.
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Through partner banks, individuals can obtain financing at lower costs than those in the market to improve the energy performance of their homes through mortgages, consumer loans and credit cards.
Mark Velody has presented the eligibility conditions for mortgage loans to improve the building’s energy performance, as well as the online platform (technology selector) where top technologies for heating, ventilation, lighting, insulation, all certified as energy efficient by the technical expert Tractebel Engineering.
For more information, visit the facility’s website or contact the facility consultant Tractebel Engineering by sending an email or using the help line 031 22 48 104.
Lack of involvement from local public authorities
Irina Nicolau, representing the Department for Energy Efficiency within ANRE, outlined the legislative provisions on industrial energy efficiency, in the context of the European and national framework for climate and energy policies. She insisted on the operational programs available, pointing out that the new financial perspective 2014-2020 provides a new approach to strategic programming for cohesion policy.
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However, the discussion focused on the means of increasing the involvement of municipal authorities, which most often do not carry out energy efficiency improvement programs, although they have a legal obligation to do so. Moreover, the appointment of an energy manager in each locality with more than 20,000 inhabitants does not advance fast enough. Irina Nicolau referred to the Authority’s intention to support the introduction of legal sanctions for municipalities that do not respond to calls for involvement in national energy efficiency improvement plans.
Electric motors for energy efficiency
In her presentation, Angela Mirea, Product Specialist Engines and Generators, ABB Romania, briefly outlined the relevant ABB portfolio in terms of energy efficiency. With 135,000 employees in 100 countries, ABB is a global leader in energy and automation, providing innovative technologies for customers in the utilities, industry, transport and infrastructure sectors.
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Angela Mirea focused on products, systems and services for industrial robotics, but especially on electric motors, as they are responsible for 28% of total global power consumption and as they are present in all industrial units, in all sectors. The ABB representative appreciated that there are two main methods of reducing electricity consumption with motors: by using higher efficiency motors and by using frequency converters (VSDs – Variable speed drives). Only 20% of the electric motors in operation use VSDs, although they can reduce consumption by 30, up to 50%. The beneficiary’s approach should include not only the purchase cost, but the total ownership cost, which is made of the purchase price, the cost of running the motor and the cost of downtime. “It is clear and easy to quantify that high efficiency motors have better return of investment on the entire life-cycle of the motor. But there is also a cost of downtime, because a defective engine means lost revenue. ABB also concentrates on motor monitoring applications to avoid such costs”, said Angela Mirea.
In industry, upgrading comes with energy efficiency
In turn, Alexandru Suciu, project manager at ENEVO Group, presented the portfolio of the company, which contributes to an increase in energy efficiency by integrating primary equipment, control, protection, security and communication into a unitary system that responds promptly to all requirements.
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Alexandru Suciu presented an impressive number of case studies from Enevo Group’s experience – 35 projects completed in two years in Romania and the Middle East, including three EMS-SCADA Dispatch Centers designed and implemented by the company’s experts.
Over 50 representatives from Q – Panouri solare, ABB România, ALD Automotive România, Apa Brașov, APAN Motors, Better Iași, BIBUS SES, CFR Iași, City ID & 3IDEI, CIVILIS – Grup de companii, Comoti, Dacia Renault, Delgaz Grid, EnergoBit, Enevo, ENGIE România, Facultatea de Instalații, GipEst Tehnic, Glacid, Hotel Unirea, INCD Turbomotoare COMOTI, MET România Energy, Miolk, Omcom, OMV Petrom Gas, Primăria Municipiului Iași, Tractebel Engineering, Universitatea Tehnică “Gh. Asachi” Iași, Uzinsider General Contractor, VSB Energie Verde România attended the presentations and participated in discussions.
The event was organised by energynomics.ro with the support of our partners: ABB România, Enevo Group, MET România Energy, Ridgid Emerson, Schneider Electric România, Stratum Enclosures, Tractebel Engineering.
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 within the Communication Campaign “Energy Efficiency for big results”
- April 26, Cluj-Napoca
- May 17, Timișoara
- July 3, Constanța
- 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