Connection technology and automation specialist WAGO now saves over a million kilowatt hours of energy at its production and logistics facility in Sondershausen in Thuringia – a gratifying achievement in energy conservation. The linchpin of this efficiency project is a combined heating, cooling and compressed air supply system.
WAGO Saves a Million Kilowatt Hours of Energy
Together with the Energy Efficiency department of the consulting firm Galek & Kowald GmbH, WAGO set out to achieve annual energy savings of this order. This example of best practices in action shows what a collaborative path to greater energy efficiency in industrial production can look like – with compressed air/CHP solutions, high-efficiency heat recovery and sorption cooling systems, both centralized and decentralized. The result: a reduction in primary energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Due to its innovative nature, the project is supported as a demonstration project by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) with European Union funds.
Hunting for Potential Improvements
The path to greater energy efficiency starts with the first step: finding out exactly where the potential lies in the system. This analysis of the status quo is essential for identifying optimization options. Achim Zerbst, WAGO Facility Manager and head of the Energy Management team, puts it in a nutshell: “Measure it or forget it!” With 80 measuring points, WAGO’s Sondershausen plant already had lots of existing measurement data, recalls Anne Häring, the energy efficiency project engineer on the Galek & Kowald team from nearby Mühlhausen who oversaw the efficiency project on the consultant side. “We got the rest through mobile measurements,” she reports. “The next step was to analyze the processes: Where is energy being used, and for what?”
Energy Management Means More Than Just Saving Energy
When moving to the concrete optimization concept, “You shouldn’t get too obsessed with details at the beginning,” advises Achim Zerbst. It’s more important that concept “makes sense in terms of energy consumption and is technically and economically feasible.” “We ourselves first had to develop a feel for how to keep the scope of operation of the innovative system technology that was being designed manageable,” he recalls. Falko Kowald, Technical Director of Galek & Kowald, adds: “The idea behind energy management is that making long-term changes is better than just saving as much energy as possible all at once.” So it’s important to look not only at the energy efficiency of the supply structure, but also at the overall operating costs. These then also include maintenance costs. Achim Zerbst provides an example: “There’s no point in having an air compressor that’s efficient in itself if the maintenance costs are many times higher.”
The Path from Consulting, to Concept, to Implementation
“First, an energy consultation outlines the current state of energy consumption in the company. On that basis, measures are developed to identify potential energy efficiency improvements,” explains Anne Häring. These take the form of specific recommendations for action, including an initial technical and economic assessment. For some energy efficiency measures, it may be necessary to involve planning experts, e.g., for cooling technology, as the project progresses. Doing so can provide a firm footing for the concept under development. Anne Häring points out another consideration: “Depending on the incentive program, subsidies may be available not just for machines, systems and equipment, but also for planning services for energy efficiency measures.” In most cases, it is possible to identify multiple energy conservation measures, which are sometimes associated with very different levels of expense. Replacing existing system technology with more efficient options is associated with relatively low planning and implementation expenses. One example would be a recommendation to retrofit conventional lighting with LEDs. By the same token, recommendations for switching over to a different technology are associated with higher planning and implementation expenses. “Depending on the measures, various incentive programs may be an option for co-financing. In such cases, it’s advisable to have an expert partner at your side that’s familiar with the various incentive programs on the state and federal level,” says Achim Zerbst. The energy efficiency project at WAGO in Sondershausen took advantage of the “GREEN invest” incentive program of the Thüringer Aufbaubank development institute. The innovative nature of the project led to an assessment as a demonstration project under the ERDF funding conditions. Because of the investment volume, a public tender was required for both the planning and the implementation. The expert planning services were put out to tender throughout Germany at the beginning of 2018. “From the start, we had a specialist attorney at our side for this process; he already provided support the tendering phase so there wouldn’t be any missteps,” recalls energy manager Zerbst. His tip: This specialist attorney should be someone who is active in the relevant federal state, since the planning and implementation can also involve state-level incentives in some cases, and construction law also differs from state to state.
Galek & Kowald GmbH – Integrated Support, from Consulting to Implementation
The contract for the compressed air and cooling building systems was awarded to the Industrial Plant Engineering department of Galek & Kowald GmbH; one reason was that the company has roots in compressed air engineering. Technical Director Falko Kowald speaks candidly: “Faced with resource scarcity and climate change, we as an equipment manufacturer have always questioned whether, from an energy consumption point of view, we should even still be selling compressors.” Compressed air generation is one of the most inefficient processes in general-purpose technology, and the energy consumption and generation costs are correspondingly high. But it was the economic crisis in 2008 and 2009 that first “gave us the opportunity to look at where we stood and what direction we really wanted to go in order to avoid contributing to the clearly intractable sustainability and cost problems.” The problem was, until 2009, the priority in energy management was generally the insulation of building envelopes. Back then, no one else dared to address complex production processes. “But we did! Because a crisis always also offers an opportunity for renewal, and we dared to seize that opportunity,” says Falko Kowald with confidence. “I was personally less concerned with expanding renewable energy generation plants than with uncovering untapped potential that still existed for conserving energy and leveraging synergy. In the process, it became clear to us that air compressors don’t always have to be a problem – they can actually be part of the solution.” So, in cooperation with Enertec Kraftwerke GmbH, a CHP plant manufacturer from Mühlhausen, Thuringia, Galek & Kowald GmbH developed a system for cogeneration of heat and compressed air, the success of which led them to establish another company: altAIRnative GmbH.
Successful Energy Management with WAGO’s Own Technology
For the efficiency project in Sondershausen, the project team used WAGO technology – from energy data collection, to plant control, to the wiring of the building and production technology. That seems like an obvious choice, but Achim Zerbst is no less proud for that: “Our own products were the only ones that allowed us to precisely record the energy consumption and all basic conditions for processes, such as temperatures, pressures and operating states.” WAGO’s own modular I/O System, controllers and corresponding software solutions “were essential for the sector coupling and the complex, harmonious interplay of the individual controllers for cooling, compressed air and heating.” The overall technological solution allows manageable operation of complex plant technology. However, the systems themselves remain easy for staff to operate. Zerbst’s summary: “We’ve created the basis for gradually optimizing the systems and implementing successful energy management.”
