Energy Efficiency: Definition and How to Achieve It?
Businesses have been aware of energy efficiency since the 2000s, following a 2006 European directive defining the obligation to optimize “the ratio between results and energy consumed for this purpose.”
Energy Efficiency: Definition
Energy efficiency is about optimizing energy to make the most of it. This applies to both techniques that will allow you to produce more with fewer resources, and methods to maintain production by reducing consumption.
Energy efficiency takes into account all aspects of company life, for example:
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- The amount of raw material consumed
- The energy cost of material supply and deliveries
- Employee transportation
- The energy used for processing
- The digital footprint
- Materiel losses
- etc
There are multiple levers, and specialized professionals will help you find improvement levers and recommend actions to implement. Dametis assists you in monitoring all of your consumption, even in unsuspected sectors. Together, we optimize the energy efficiency of all aspects of your company.
The history of energy efficiency
Energy efficiency has been discussed by the European Council since 2000, and was first mentioned in a 2004 directive on cogeneration. Cogeneration refers to a set of methods that allow the production of both thermal and mechanical energy using a single installation. In practical terms, this means harnessing the heat produced during electricity generation rather than letting it dissipate into the atmosphere. This already aligns with energy efficiency principles by generating more usable resources (two types of energy) from the same operation.
This directive has since been reinforced by European directives in 2006, and then in 2012.
The 2006 European directive was the first to focus on energy efficiency. It defines energy efficiency for the first time as: “‘energy efficiency’ means the ratio between the results, service, goods or energy obtained and the energy consumed for this purpose.” Other directives followed in 2009 and 2010, and finally in 2012. In the directive of October 25, 2012, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union set a target to increase energy efficiency by 20% by 2020 compared to 2007 forecasts.
France and Energy Efficiency
Among the measures implemented to encourage and improve energy efficiency in France, we notably mention:
– The carbon tax
– The ecological bonus
– The Law on Energy Transition for Green Growth of 2015, which notably requires new buildings to have better energy efficiency.
Furthermore, the green growth law sets targets for reducing energy consumption by 50% by 2050, with an intermediate target of 20% by 2030. Discover how to measure and improve your company’s energy efficiency to achieve the goals set by your company and the state.
How to evaluate energy efficiency?
– Heating of storage spaces
– Methods of transporting goods and employees
– Energy costs of new machines
– Electricity consumption
– Deliveries of your products
– etc
Solutions like Dametis software provide you with a clear view of your consumption. With this data, it will be easy to identify areas where you can reduce material losses and improve energy efficiency.
Application examples to achieve energy efficiency
→ Energy efficiency: increasing production without increasing energy
– Your transportation and storage methods
– Employee transportation
It is also possible to increase production by reusing materials from products with manufacturing errors, rather than discarding them.
As long as you do not create new sources of waste by increasing production, the increase in production will generally require less and less energy. There are also ways to optimize your energy efficiency by reducing consumption across various production processes.
→ Energy efficiency: maintaining production by reducing energy consumption
It is not possible for all companies to increase production profitably, and it is important in all cases to optimize energy consumption in production by reducing it where possible.
Among the ways to reduce energy consumption to increase energy efficiency, it is possible to :
- Bring your storage locations closer together to reduce travel time
- Modernize your machines and installations to improve their energy efficiency and avoid energy losses
- Use more environmentally friendly means of transportation for your company
- Improve your processes to avoid material losses
- Use green energy sources
To improve your energy efficiency and reduce your carbon footprint, contact us, and we will work together to implement a program to measure your consumption and advise you on its optimization.
