Amadori Group – Energy as a strategic resource to support growth. The ISO 50001 Energy Management System certification
The degree of awareness of the “energy problem” for Italian companies that emerged from the research carried out at the end of 2012 from the Politecnico di Milano (Energy Efficiency Report – November 2012) is rather bleak.
The diffusion of organizational figures professionally dedicated to energy management within companies is very limited and this is reflected in a lack of attention to the measurement and control of energy consumption. 69% of companies take only rudimentary approaches to measure and control energy consumption, and between small and medium size only 5% of adopting an “energy management system”.
A system to measure energy consumptions is the first step to overcome the inertia of the operators to deal with the energy problems. This is a clear indicator on how the industrial system is rather “backward” from this point of view.
Energy management by companies is one of the key themes of the development of the “culture” of energy efficiency in industrial systems. It requires a business management of energy activities to ensure that the energy manager can affect the decision-making process and the precise technological choices within a financial plan.
Management systems
A management system is a set of management actions planned and coordinated, operational procedures, systems documentation and registration made through an organizational structure in which roles, responsibilities and resources are clear and well defined.
There are several management systems, depending on the area covered, and each management system applies a particular technical standard voluntary. One of the most recent standards is ISO 50001, which defines the basic requirements that an Energy Management System (EMS) “should have”.
The main operations defined by this standard may be summarized as follows:
Plan (Planning)) – identify the sources of energy used, measure the energy consumption in the past, present and estimate the future needs, identify relevant variables that influence energy consumption, identify the most important centers of consumption, ensuring the resources to achieve the strategic objectives; the identification of one or more persons who have the task of keeping the system operational, and develop a corporate energy policy.
Do (Action Plan) – involve staff; define the criteria for management and the most significant operational and maintenance activities in terms of energy use; define the specifications for energy purchase and for any component utilizing energy; develop / re -design processes and/or systems to improve the energy performance.
Check (Check and monitor continuously) – monitor and analyze the energy performance on an ongoing basis through a system of measurement; identify the possible corrective actions (and possibly automate them) if performance is not in line with the objectives set.
Act (Continuous Actions) – gather the information necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of the system adopted (possibly by automating the sending of reports differentiated for the different target); identify opportunities for improvement.
Most of these activities can be managed using a monitoring system capable of measuring and manage:
– All energy sources (electricity, gas, water, etc.)
– The environmental parameters related to the consumption and / or production (temperature, humidity, brightness, etc..)
– The process parameters (steam, compressed air, level, status, etc.).
A monitoring system must be able to be expanded over time and should allow multiple connection alternatives for the instruments (Ethernet, Internet, serial, wireless, radio, etc..), as well as for the visualization and management of the data collected (via a personal computer, tablet, smartphone, e-mail, sms, etc.) and enable the different actors involved in the management of the Energy Management System to control and manage various aspects including:
ENERGY SAVING > Save energy by discovering wastings, their causes and raising awareness on the users. Collect data in order to evaluate the supplier’s offer and verify the result obtained.
COST CENTER > The energy should be economically quantified as the other raw materials.
ENVIRONMENTAL AND PROCESS CONTROLLING > Measure and manage the parameters related to the energy consumption (temperature, luminosity, etc.) and control the operation and profitability of the machines.
ENERGY AUTOMATION > Automate every process for the best management of energy: turning on/off, alarms / alerts / notifications and automations based on a calendar related to events or measurements values provided from the instruments on the field.
REMOTE MANAGEMENT > Optimize the measurement process and control remotely your systems saving time and costs.
ANOMALIES CONTROL > Simplify the maintenance and support the prevention.
ENERGY QUALITY MONITORING > Monitor the quality of energy and detect the possible causes of malfunction (interruptions, harmonics distortion, etc.).
RENEWABLE ENERGY > Monitor the profitability of your system (PV, wind farm, etc.) avoiding production stops and manage the energy produced in the most convenient way.
The application
Amadori Group is one of the main leaders in the Italian agro-food sector and a point of reference for the meat based dishes founded in San Vittore di Cesena over 40 years ago. It is present now on the national territory with factories, branches and agencies and employs a workforce of over 7,000 employees.
The accomplishments of the Amadori Group comes from the awareness of being a “energy-hungry” company.
With the recent achievement of the ISO 50001 certification, this course has been enriched by a method that embraces resources and processes in a “systematic” way.
The Energy Management System according to ISO 50001 has been integrated with the Quality Management System ISO 9001 and the ISO 14001 Environmental, already present in the company.
The achievement of ISO 50001 certification for the plant of AVICOOP in Cesena is a milestone for Amadori: not the end but the means to make more structured and effective the set of attitudes and actions towards energy aspects.
The plant in Cesena was founded in 1968 and is the first processing plant in the group. Covering an area of 145,100 sqm it contains:
- 4 Production lines (chicken, turkey, processed, frankfurters)
- 1 processing plant by-products of slaughter
- 1 platform for distribution (10,870 sqm)
- 9 Cold storage at 0 ° C production (1,300 sqm)
- 1 Mechanized cell at – 20 ° C to 3500 p / p 3 Freezing tunnel at – 40 ° C
The main infrastructure systems:
- 1 Electricity Distribution Cabin from 11 MW to 15 kV
- 6 Cabins of MV / LV
- 2 Refrigeration compressors centrals
- 1 Compressed air central
- 1 Central for the “Empty” production
- 1 Hydropower Central
- 1Thermal Power Plant of 7 MWt
- 2 Cogeneration plants of 3 and 4 MWe
- 1 Wastewater treatment by 4000 mc/g
In the plant has been installed an Electrex Energy Monitoring System consisting of more than 100 devices. The system collects energy data (electricity, gas and water) of different users/departments and various software applications allow continuous monitoring of the data and automatic report generation.
Diagram from Electrex’s Energy Brain software showing daily consumption of electricity of a department
Automatic monthly report with the subdivision of electricity consumption divided by cost center
In 2011 the costs of energy demand of the plant in Cesena have been as follows:
THE INITIAL CRITICAL ISSUES
The analysis carried out during the ISO 50001 certification has identified the following initial critical issues:
– The mapping of processes in terms of energy was not organized
– Were already present several energy meters on the field but there was no proper organization within the company for the management of data collected and the analysis
– In general there was a lack of awareness on energy issues
– It was not given due importance to the management of energy data either by the management or by the operating personnel processes
THE STARTING POINT
Since several years the Amadori Group has installed in its factory measurement systems of energy (electrical and thermal) and water.
In the plant of Cesena are operating various Electrex devices that collect data on electricity consumption (including Power Quality Analysis), gas and water.
The data collected are transmitted to the servers through the local Ethernet networks and Modbus RS-485 and collected in a central database.
Before the implementation of the Energy Management System, the management of data was mainly of an economic nature. That gave an overall view of consumption.
THE PATH TO THE ISO 50001 CERTIFICATION
The path followed to achieve the ISO 50001 certification has led to the organization of the Energy Management System (EMS) and the appointment of the Head of the Energy Management System (REMS).
The Environmental Management System has raised awareness to activate the energy performance indicators as tools for improvement and the need for analytical data and therefore measurable.
The main areas in which the Amadori team has worked are:
– Extensive redefining of the mapping of the main production processes in terms of energy
– Implementation of the measuring system
– Energy analysis with automatic report generation
Automatic monthly report with the subdivision of water consumption divided by cost center
– Definition of energy performance indicators
– Definition of baseline
– Plans and goals for improvement with strong involvement of the management company
BENEFITS
From the point of view of energy efficiency the benefits obtained are various:
– The organization of data for production line and for each utility in order to manage production processes and cost centers
– The immediate detection of abnormal absorption or negative trends, on which it is necessary to operate quickly
– The possibility to intervene in terms of predictive maintenance
– The historicization of data and the deviations from similar productive situations of the same plant or other plants in the group
– Identifying energy inefficiencies, waste, and the evaluation and identification of technical/management interventions in order to reduce consumptions
– The evaluation of energy saving projects.
THE NEXT STEPS
The analysis conducted on the data collected has identified several opportunities for improvement and led to the establishment of a strategic plan that includes the development of several projects that involve an investment of over € 7 million.
Target areas are the following:
– Renewable energy: 1 MWe biogas cogeneration
– Efficiency of energy transformation: a new Thermal power station from 7MWt and new cogeneration plants of 3 and 4MWe 3 MWe
– End-use energy efficiency: from passive management to active management of energy through the use of inverters
– Expansion of the Electrex energy consumption monitoring system
– Awareness through training of both workers and suppliers
– Consolidating the rules defined by the ISO 50001 standard
The quantification of the time of return on investment has been possible thanks to the availability of the continuous, historical and detailed measurements of the various users/departments. These data made it possible to perform calculations and simulations essential in determining investment. The continuous measurement will then allow you to monitor the performance in terms of efficiency of the taken actions.
OBJECTIVES
The objectives that the Amadori Group has set for the coming years are as follows:
– Consolidation of the energy management system
– Reduction of fuel consumption by 10% over the next 2 years
THE ELECTREX MONITORING SYSTEM
The energy and environmental management and monitoring system adopted by Amadori is based on Electrex instrumentation and software.
The Electrex solutions are used in the Energy Efficiency and Energy Automation applications, for the industrial, tertiary, residential and renewable resources sectors allowing a rapid return on investment.
Thanks to the Electrex products you can manage, by using a single system, the monitoring and control of all the energy sources (electrical energy, gas, water, etc.), the environmental parameters related to consumption / production (temperature, humidity, luminosity, etc.), the process parameters (compressed air, level, state, etc.). In this way you can achieve your main goal: save on energy costs.
All the Electrex systems are modular and can be expanded when needed. That is also due to the multiple possibilities of connection, displaying and data management of the instruments.
And for every need there is the right product.
The range of Electrex products consists of:
– Measurement instruments for energy, environmental and process parameters
– Instruments for the energy consumption, production management and energy automation
– Energy monitoring and remote management systems
– Data displaying solutions on various platforms
– Web server, gateway, converters and interfaces (Ethernet, Wireless, Serial, Bus, GSM, etc.)
– Energy data retrieving and management software
The Electrex products are entirely designed, engineered and manufactured in Italy.
Bibliographic Sources: Energy Efficiency Report – November 2012 Politecnico di Milano; FIRE The new ISO 50001 standard for Energy Management Systems
