Enhancing energy audits schemes in Energy Intensive Industries with practical approaches

Introduction

In a context of continuously increasing fuel prices, energy efficiency (EE) has been highlighted for several EU strategic plans as key for maintaining the EU’s competitive edge. However, industry doesn’t perceive EE as a critical factor for business sustainability due to a lack of knowledge and prioritization of resources.

Energy Consumption in Industry

Industry represents 25.6% of the EU final energy consumption, and 50% of that energy is demanded by Energy Intensive Industries (EII).

Project Goals

LIFE AUDIT-PLUS aims to set up and manage multi-actor local groups at the EU level to act as a sole intermediary for 82 EII facing the implementation of EE measures after an energy audit. The project seeks to achieve 303 GWh/year of Final Energy Savings.

Focus Areas

The project focuses, firstly, on Castellon’s ceramic sector (Spain), where cogeneration with Natural Gas is critical. The increase of Natural Gas and CO2 costs is leading companies to put their employees in RTER.

Synergies with Other Sectors

Synergies with the ceramic sector can be found in:

• The pharmaceutical sector
• The food processing sector

Both of these sectors also rely heavily on cogeneration.

Additional Focus Locations

The project focuses, secondly, on Cork, where 7 out of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies are located, and in Galicia (Spain) and Poland, which are two of the 8 EU economies most relevant in the food processing sector.

Consortium Composition

The consortium is composed of:

• Not-for-profit industrial-led research organizations
• Consulting and engineering companies

These organizations will:

1. Address and discuss EII’s energy efficiency levers of change.
2. Identify sensitivities and synergies in the business environment.
3. Transform available technical and regulatory knowledge into useful content for EII (i.e., transforming it into a formal proposal for monitoring and follow-up after audit measures implementation).
4. Accompany EII in any stage of the EE measure implementation by providing a 9-month free of charge service.

Future Impact

In the next 5 years after the project ends, 217 companies will receive support from LIFE AUDIT-PLUS.