EVVA is currently placing its energy management on a new footing in order to further reduce energy requirements and emissions:

• Energy management with detailed consumption analyses
  EVVA establishes a new digital energy management system in 2023/2024 to make electricity and gas consumption clearer and quicker to recall. It will optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of our energy saving measurements. The technical equipments are successively connected to consumption meters in order to measure individual energy requirements. On the one hand, the required energy should continue to be available in a fail-safe manner, and on the other hand, potential for electricity and cost savings should be identified and exploited at the push of a button. This energy monitoring has significant positive effects on climate protection and economic viability.
  
  Starting in the canteen: In 2023, EVVA Vienna started a pilot project together with the agency “Watt Analytics” to identify undetected energy guzzlers. "The canteen was chosen first because it is easy to test here after the food is served. For this purpose, additional electricity consumption meters were installed in the control cabinets and low-voltage rooms,“ says Martin van Berkum, who coordinates the building equipment and appliances. The finding: Even small changes in ventilation, lighting and stand-by operation after work have an annual impact and result in a total saving of around 4,000 euros or 15,000 kWh just in the canteen, which is as much electricity as around 4 private households consume annually.
   

  Electricity analyses are now being planned for all production areas. Up to 150 sensors could be installed therefore from 2024 onwards. Only when the energy requirement of each device is exactly identified precise measures can be derived from that results. For example, using a central production software to make the machine park network more closely and operate it even more energy-efficiently

• Integration of compressor waste heat into the heating return

  From 2024, the waste heat from the existing and newly purchased compressors (which generate the compressed air for production, see photo on the right) will help to gradually replace the gas for heating. To do this, heat exchangers are installed at the compressors, which conduct the waste heat into the heating return and thereby further reduce the need for natural gas.

  Using waste heat also from the machines is another potential approach. Heat recovery currently consists of a flap in the exhaust air. In winter, the machine heat is conducted into the production hall, saving heating gas; in summer, it is deducted, saving energy for cooling and air conditioning systems. EVVA will first evaluate its experiences with waste heat from compressors before implementing further plans for machine waste heat.

  Positive effects: The potential is enormous: the calculated energy savings through heat recovery are 1,210,000 kWh, i.e. 1.21 GWh! The CO₂ savings amount to 250 tons. The waste heat from the compressors would therefore contribute significantly to our Net Zero target for Scope 1 (more on our Net Zero targets and the Scopes under “Climate Neutrality”). Together with the more energy-efficient operation of the new compressors (see Scope 2), there are calculated savings of around 1,581,000 kWh (1.581 GWh) or 268,770 euros in total if the entire potential energy can be used

• Eliminate leaks in the compressed air system
  See „Compressed air system optimisation“
   
• LED changeover

  Sometimes the most obvious thing can make a big difference. A good example of this is the changeover to LED lighting in EVVA Vienna (in the production area since 2016 and in all offices in 2019). With this lighting technology we were able to reduce electricity consumption by approximately 130,000 kWh per year. This corresponds to the electricity needs of over 35 private households per year (at 3,500 kWh per household per year).

  The LED changeover ensures a 60% energy saving compared to the previous lighting – with the same light output. Another advantage: The lifespan of the LED is three times longer, meaning the replacement costs are reduced considerably. Employees have the option of dimming the light intensity.
  EVVA Netherlands also changed its lighting to LED in 2021. As well as the site in Tišnov (Czech Republic) in 2022/2023

• Digital building management system (BMS)
  An important aspect of saving energy concerns the BMS, which can digitally and centrally control heating, cooling and fire alarm systems. The prerequisite for this is to record and know the exact electricity consumption of each production area. That‘s exactly what EVVA will determine from 2024. That‘s why EVVA has only partially achieved the previously formulated goals of „Introducing central building management technology for the entire headquarters“ and „More efficient control of the heating“ (which were originally planned until 2024): In the new extension the BMS was installed in its entirety in 2022, but it is much more difficult to implement it in the older parts of the building (where EVVA has been manufacturing since 1955). Only when energy management with extensive electricity analyzes has been established EVVA will also launch BMS measures like in the extension building, such as:
  > automatic heat/cooling control according to outside temperature (no air conditioning necessary),
  > intelligent use of machine waste heat inside the production hall in winter
   
• Concrete core activation implemented
  The extension to the headquarters was also equipped with an modern concrete core activation (also known as building component activation) in 2021 for optimal heating and cooling. Here, hoses in which water can circulate as a heating or cooling medium are cast directly into the ceilings. The flow-through ceilings are thermally activated as transfer and storage mass. They absorb or dissipate heat over their entire surfaces – and thus ensure a uniform temperature throughout the year. Due to the large transfer surfaces, water does not have to be heated as much as, for example, with conventional central heating with radiators. The system is integrated in the central building management system (BMS) of the extension building and works with air heat pumps, air cooling pumps and heat exchangers.
  
  

  

  "Since concrete stores and conducts the respective temperature of the water particularly well, the system can be used for both cooling and heating. Air pumps regulate the exchange of heat and cold", summarises Martin van Berkum, EVVA Head of Production Technology. With concrete core activation, EVVA saves around 50,000 kWh of natural gas consumption at its headquarters every year. This means that the equivalent of 14 single-family households could be supplied with electricity per year.