Energy management in XtraSmall production companies - status and incentives

The project shows that Danish X-small production companies have a general interest in energy-efficient solutions and have often already introduced a partial manual and automatic control of the ‘visible’ energy consumption that takes place outside the companies' working hours. They are positively interested in knowing more about the energy consumption of their production equipment, but see no financial incentive to invest in a database-based energy management system where they can monitor and track the consumption of all machines and tools in real time.

Almost all companies use compressors, extraction and ventilation. Common to the companies is that extraction is switched off, which only runs when it is used, and often also for the ventilation system. The compressors run on a 24-hour basis in 10 out of the 12 companies visited. In addition, it is common to all of the companies visited that there is clock control on lighting if it is not switched off manually. The physical conditions in the companies' electrical installations have proved to be very different and the electrical panels are often of older date and need an update in accordance with current legal requirements. This means that it can be difficult to set up meters in the electricity board itself, which is a challenge - both financially and practically - for the introduction of database-based energy management in companies. They need advice and more knowledge about options for automatic controls (clock control of production equipment, on / off of IT equipment, control of extraction and ventilation systems, etc.). In addition, none of the participating companies were aware of the possibility of monitoring their electricity consumption via Data-Hub.

Business owners see a future where database-based energy management can become an important signal to customers and other stakeholders that the company is energy and climate conscious. At the same time, some of the companies expect that in the near future their customers can make demands on them to document the environmental impact of the individual product. Having said that, it must also be noted that several of the companies did not get to look at data from the energy meters that were temporarily set up in the company, even if they just had to click on a link. For a database-based energy management system to be attractive, it must therefore be more flexible (wireless and portable) and very simple and easy to read, e.g. via an app. Potential for energy savings in X-small manufacturing companies As mentioned above, only temporary measurements have been carried out in the companies, often with a duration of 3 to 6 weeks.

Based on the short measurement period, it is not possible to identify sudden downtime, faults on production equipment and inappropriate behavior that typically occurs over a production year. It is therefore not possible to say anything about how much an energy saving implementation of database energy management will entail in the smallest companies. However, some estimates have been made on the replacement of production equipment and conversions to more environmentally friendly heating.

It is convincing that it can pay off economically and environmentally for companies to convert from fossil heating to e.g. heat pump solutions, while it is less convincing that it pays for companies to invest in energy efficiency of production equipment if the focus is solely on the economy.

The least energy-consuming production companies account for an energy consumption of 50,200 GJ. As the review of the companies indicates that there is a savings potential (varies between 5 and 20% of the electricity consumption), there will be a socio-economic gain by realizing the savings potential.