Comprehensive technological energy audit of the Impol Slovenska Bistrica location
The company Impol d. o. o. is strongly involved in the field of efficient energy use, both from the perspective of managing operating costs and the importance of sustainable management of natural resources.
CHALLENGE:
The company Impol d. o. o. is strongly involved in the field of efficient energy use, both from the perspective of managing operating costs and the importance of sustainable management of natural resources. This energy audit was challenging in a very detailed analysis of opportunities to improve the efficiency of energy consumption in technology, as after the last comprehensive energy audit conducted in 2013, an extensive energy information system (ENIS) was installed in the company, which includes more than 300 energy meters and production data in individual phases of technological processes, so the expectations of the client were high.
Solution:
The project was based on continuous measurements and analysis of energy consumption at the level of individual technological lines, other technological consumers and energy and auxiliary systems. In close cooperation with the client’s expert groups, additional opportunities for improving energy efficiency were identified, especially in the areas of melting processes, thermal preparation and final processing of materials and production lines. In many ways, the measures are related either to investments in replacing less efficient sets of technological processes (drives, heat exchangers, furnaces), or to upgrading control and regulation systems, or to more active energy management, which requires upgrading the information system to the batch monitoring level, additional inclusion of production and technological variables, machine learning and more.
Graphical displays
“Impol is an energy-intensive company. Energy costs are a big expense for us, so we basically try to work energy-efficiently. Sometimes we ourselves no longer see where we can save anything, so it is also useful to have the perspective of external experts. They are not burdened with the activities that we have already done in a certain process, but can assess additional opportunities for improvement from a completely different perspective.”
Rafko Atelšek, Director of Impol Infrastructure d.o.o.
The energy audit provided a comprehensive overview of opportunities for increasing energy efficiency with identified potentials for reducing final energy consumption, which took into account the synergy between individual systems and technology. The most important conclusions of the project were presented to the company management and directors of individual plants, and previously, individual identified opportunities were presented in detail to managers and technical staff within individual work units at the Slovenska Bistrica location. The project represents a fundamental document for URE activities for the period 2024 – 2028.
