Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung ISI

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Energy efficiency networks: Lessons learned from Germany

2018 , Durand, Antoine , Jochem, Eberhard , Chassein, Edith , Roser, Annette , Joest, Steffen , Quezada, Akamitl

The energy efficiency network (EEN) concept was first developed in Switzerland in the late 1980s and was adopted in Germany in 2002. During a long pilot phase between 2002 and 2013, the lessons from 40 Learning EENs (LEENs) in Germany led to a certain format for regional EENs for SMEs and larger companies. By the end of 2014, the Energy Efficiency Network Initiative (IEEN) was launched as a voluntary agreement between the German government and currently 22 industrial and economic associations, to support the creation of 500 new EENs until the end of 2020. This paper reports on two aspects of EENs of companies in Germany: The results of ongoing evaluations regarding German EENs following different operational formats in terms of duration, number of participants, network energy saving target, etc. The evaluations regard challenges and means to improve EEN-related work as well as first results of a rough assessment of the IEEN impacts regarding energy savings and emission reductions. The long-term impacts on energy use, innovative activities and changed decision routines in participating companies of regional LEENs. This evaluation gives deep insights into achieved energy cost savings within an investment period, into the diffusion of efficiency-related knowledge into subsidiary companies within groups and into the reaction of machinery manufacturers and plant planners to the demand of more efficient solutions by network participant Finally, this paper concludes with an analysis of the lessons learned from German EENs including barriers and challenges to initiate EENs as well as suggestions to improve EENs' promotion. The main finding is that EENs are not only a successful concept in terms of energy efficiency but it also offers multiple benefits to the participants such as innovative ideas for energy efficient solutions. However, a major challenge is to convince companies to join EENs.

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Regional energy efficiency networks - what factors make them successful?

2016 , Dütschke, Elisabeth , Hirzel, Simon , Mielicke, Ursula , Idrissova, Farikha , Nabitz, Lisa , Mai, Michael

Energy efficiency networks have received increasing attention over the last few years, not only from national governments (Austria, China, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland), but also from utilities, consulting engineers, chambers of commerce, and city councils. This paper examines the factors that contribute to the success of such networks by drawing on unique data from two pilot projects with 34 energy efficiency networks in Germany. The objective is to explain why companies participating in such networks are much faster at reducing their energy costs than the average in similar businesses. Possible explanations for the success of energy efficiency networks include: (1) energy audits make profitable potentials visible; (2) the joint network targets for efficiency and emissions increase the motivation of energy managers, decision-makers and other staff members; (3) the meetings and site visits to the network participants act like an intensive training course. They increase the knowledge of efficient solutions, change decision routines, and lead to trust among the participants, thereby reducing transaction costs. In our data, we find support for the first and the third explanations, i.e. the audits make profitable potentials visible and networks function as a training course to increase knowledge. The impact of network goals, on the other hand, appears to have both up- and downsides. We conclude with the need for further research in order to capture these mechanisms in more detail.

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A bottom-up estimation of heating and cooling demand in the European industry

2016 , Rehfeldt, Matthias , Rohde, Clemens , Fleiter, Tobias , Toro, Felipe , Reitze, Felix

Energy balances, e.g. the one provided by Eurostat, are usually aggregated at the level of subsector and energy carrier. In the context of transformation of energy systems and policies targeting energy efficiency as well as security of supply, more detailed information about the end-uses of energy is needed. While heating and cooling makes up for half the energy demand of the EU28 plus Norway, Switzerland, Iceland (EU28+3), balances aligned to Eurostat for the industrial sector, including process heat temperature level and end-use, are not available today. Here we present a methodology to disaggregate Eurostat's energy balance for the industrial sector and add these dimensions. Results show that though a stable overall pattern can be observed, considerable differences among countries in terms of temperature distribution, energy carrier use and their cross-references exist. These differences are mainly caused by heterogeneous economic structures of the countries in scope, highlighting that approaches on process level yield more differentiated results, which subsector level approaches cannot. We calculate the EU28+3 industrial process heating demand to 1,035 TWh, 706 TWh and 228 TWh at the respective temperature levels >500 °C (e.g. iron and steel production), 100-500 °C (e.g. steam use in chemical industry)and 100 °C (e.g. food industry). We expect the results presented here to contribute to policy design regarding energy efficiency and security of supply, by providing a deeper insight in the requirements and particularities of industrial heat demand.

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Scenario based evaluation of policies addressing the German heating and cooling sector: A bottom-up modeling approach integrating buildings, industry and district heating

2013 , Steinbach, Jan , Kranzl, Lukas , Müller, Andreas , Hummel, Marcus , Kockat, Judit , Herbst, Andrea , Toro, Felipe , Reitze, Felix , Jochem, Eberhard , Fette, Max , Schulz, Wolfgang , Bürger, Veit

Energy demand for heating and cooling represents the largest energy use sector in Germany. Measures to enhance energy efficiency of buildings and industry processes are often considered as a cost-effective opportunity to reduce energy demand and carbon dioxide emissions. Nevertheless, realized improvements in energy efficiency have failed to live up to expectations in the past few years considering its attributed potential; raising the question if the targets regarding energy efficiency and renewable heating and cooling set by the German government are still feasible. This paper presents a variety of scenarios for the German heating and cooling sector up to 2020 using an exploratory modeling approach. Each scenario considers a certain set of different policy instruments which are analyzed by integrating four different techno-economic bottom-up sector models - INVERT/EE-Lab, Forecast-ProcIndustry, ProcServ and District heating/CHP model. The latter considers different building and settlement types to calculate the potential of district heating and CHP technologies subject to energy load of industry processes and buildings. The dynamic simulation model INVERT/EE-Lab is applied to simulate investment decisions in energy efficiency measures and evaluate different support schemes in the building sector. Forecast-ProcIndustry and ProcServ describes the energy demand of process heating and cooling in industry and the service sector, respectively.

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Energy efficiency networks - a group energy management system as a business model?

2016 , Jochem, Eberhard , Gerspacher, Andreas , Eberle, Armin , Mai, Michael , Mielicke, Ursula

During the initial phase of setting up and operating energy efficiency networks in industry (in the 1980s and 1990s in Switzerlandand in the early 2000s in Germany), their initiators did not realize how effective and adaptive this concept would turn out to be. This paper reports on the lessons learnt about this "group energy management system", where ten to 15 companies or production sites regularly exchange their experiences, set joint efficiency targets and perform a yearly monitoring of their efforts. Energy efficiency networks have been implemented with great success in different settings: (1) as centrally organized instruments with an operating standard set by government (Switzerland), or with an open standardset by the state utility (China), or (2) as an open standard with a minimum specification (Germany, Austria). In every case, participation is not obligatory, but encouraged by incentives offered by the national government. Initially designed as regional company networks where energy managers could meet locally, the concept is now evolving into (1) networks of industrial branches and (2) group-internal energy efficiency networks. Other changes include: the initial energy audit has been expanded to include demand-side management analysis and the flexibility potentials of on-site electricity generators (co-generation, standby set); information about organizational measures and financing options is added continuously; process-oriented workshops on energy-efficient solutions in production processes are offered to the members of all 80 networks operating in Germany (examples: solid painting,drying); participating companies have taken their own initiatives to improve their products' energy efficiency. Innovative energy managers have even asked their plant and machinery suppliers to improve the energy performance of their products, speeding up innovation in the efficiency field. An association of energy efficiency networks (AGEEN) was founded in Germany in 2014 to develop a quality standard for operating energy efficiency networks, to promote networks in Germany, and to share their experiences andideas for further improvements and market transparency. The German federal government launched the Energy Efficiency Network Initiative together with 22 industrial and business associations in December 2014. The objective of this voluntary agreement is to support the establishment of 500 energy efficiency networks until the year 2020 in Germany that are expected to make primary energy savings of 75 PJ and CO2 reductions of 5 mill. tonnes.

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