The interventions are the actions that lead to the achievement of the planned objectives; within the company, the phases of initial analysis concern improvement activities, replacement, construction of new systems as well as communication activities aimed at raising awareness and education for a rational use of energy.
The types of interventions that can be implemented in your company fall into these categories:
- staff;
- saving;
- efficiency;
- renewable sources.
The staff interventions consist in information campaigns, awareness, information, education and above all involvement of human resources to the energy choices of the company.
The interventions on reducing costs can vary from a new agreements on the prices of supply of the energetic products inside of the company, to the rationalisation and optimisation of the maintenance standards adopted.
Energy efficiency interventions can be divided into two main categories: the interventions on the building and those on the plant.
Among the interventions there is also the possibility of installing renewable energy plants for self-production of heating and electricity you need, with total or partial coverage.
Company staff play a key role in implementing an energy management system. Any plant intervention loses its partial effectiveness if the staff does not give its contribution to the achievement of the objectives. Acting on several fronts on staff is essential for achieving the expected results.
There are several types of intervention that can be useful to raise staff awareness and encourage behavioural change, to positively affect the implementation of the energy management system:
- Habits and comfort levels: changing personnel habits can often help to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy costs;
- delegation of personnel: directly involved in the energy management system, appropriate operational delegation shall be allocated in such a way that it can integrate the management and control of the system into daily activity;
- training and preparation: all personnel must be trained in the use of manual controls and pay attention to energy saving opportunities.
The concept of energy saving is then linked to the ability to reduce energy consumption, which is necessary for the needs of your company. It is a set of behaviours, processes and interventions that allow you to limit waste and improve technologies, so you can save the energy needed for everyday business activities. There are three fundamental factors that contribute to achieving the goal of energy saving within your company:
- energy carriers;
- maintenance of facilities;
- automatic saving devices.
Energy efficiency and energy saving are two concepts often used as synonyms, yet they represent in fact the two complementary sides of the so-called sustainable development medal, namely the vision of the future, in which ensuring the well-being of individuals is not detrimental to the protection of the environment and environmental resources.
Energy efficiency primarily aims to use less energy in absolute terms with the same final result, and it is associated with targets for the use of renewable energy sources instead of fossil and polluting sources in order to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases at the same amount of energy consumed.
In recent years with the spread renewable sources, we are witnessing a gradual transition from a system of a centralized generation to one of a distributed generation, where distributed generation means the production of electricity through small plants scattered on the territory that are often located near the places where it is consumed.
Finally, it is good to talk about synergy of enterprise, that is the combined and contemporary action, the collaboration or cooperation of several companies in the same activity. The high energy costs associated with productive activities, together with the continuous evolution of economic relations between companies, are forcing the individual entrepreneur to face global contexts in constant evolution. The formalisation of economic relations between companies, including in the supply chain (production sector), has therefore a strategic significance for the approach to new markets and for the resolution of problems related to energy costs.
The consolidation and development of these relations, which takes the form, for example, of the creation of a network of enterprises, also allows the single micro-enterprise to spread and compete on the market sharing the components of competitiveness.
For more information, visit the website of the Revenue Agency, dedicated to energy upgrading.