New company network: Avoiding waste, generating own electricity
Municipal business development officers and Chamber of Industry representatives in the district of Göppingen meet up at R.I.E.MPP in Oberboihingen and are currently building up a network designed to accelerate the energy transition. It involves exchanging knowledge about solutions that work well. During the first network meeting of the Energy Agency of the district of Göppingen, Friedrich Riempp explained how efficient behaviour sustainably cuts energy costs.
In 2013, the entrepreneur from Oberboihingen developed an energy management system for companies, administrations and local authorities which is based on communication between all energy consumers and suppliers via radio technology. A software documents and analyses this data, which can be programmed using control technology. The result: A metalworking company was able to reduce the load peak of its 40-man production shop from 50 to 35 kW because various energy consumers were coordinated with each other. This relieves the strain on the public power grid, which the energy utility rewards with a lower price. The energy management system is called emsyst 4.0, and it also ensures that the electricity generated by the 40-kWp PV system on the roof of the company building takes precedence over mains electricity, or that the heating is turned down when windows or the building door are open.
“We can now show that companies have been able to reduce their energy consumption by 40 percent” says Riempp to his amazed audience. They include the business development officers of the district and the municipalities of Göppingen and Geislingen, as well as service providers such as Thomas Herp, an engineer for building services and automation based in Salach. This first network meeting was organised by Timm Engelhardt, Managing Director of the district’s Energy Agency, which has its offices in the same building as the district’s Business and Innovation Development Agency, WiF. “We want to motivate companies to tackle the topic of energy saving, especially because activities in this area are very profitable” says Engelhardt. He plans public events on the subject and has also built up a network of consultants and service providers who regularly exchange information and are available to answer specific questions from companies. The scope ranges from electricity purchasing to saving, aspects of the Renewable Energies Act to planning energy-autonomous companies in which technologies are interlinked or several participants organise their energy supply jointly. Currently the most well-known example in the district of Göppingen is a supermarket in Salach. It has set new benchmarks in the industry around the country, because for instance the radiated heat from the refrigerated displays is either fed into the underfloor heating or buffered in the ice storage system.
